


Youtube vs The Zombie Apocalypse

by Madzie2000



Category: Internet Personalities, VidCon - Fandom, Zombie Apocalypse- World Event
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content (?), F/M, Survivor Guilt, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-05-20 08:57:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 46,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5999878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madzie2000/pseuds/Madzie2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After starting a week-long holiday to see VidCon for her birthday, Melissa finds herself upstairs from a café with some of the most well-known YouTubers in the world. Now Melissa and her motley crew will do anything to keep each other safe... no matter the cost.</p><p>*Under re-construction in the grammatical sense... thank me later!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meat & Greet

“Today’s the day!” someone said happily.

Hannah stared at her over-eager friend Melissa as the younger woman opened the curtains on the hotel windows, shielding her eyes from the powerful Californian sunshine. Melissa’s dark brown hair turned a reddish-purple in the sunlight, the sight making Hannah grin. _So rebellious... not!_

“The day for what, Mel?” Hannah asked.

Melissa sighed loudly and irritably.

“The reason we came to California, you dope; VidCon!” Melissa said with a small portion of disappointment aimed at her friends question.

Hannah dropped her hand and raised an eyebrow. Melissa laughed and threw her a top along with a pair of skinny jeans.

“Those jean’re from your bag but I gave you one of my t’s to wear. Everybody there will be nerds or fans of someone who’s popular, so I had these printed before we left,” Melissa said with a smile that might never leave her face all day. 

Hannah stared at the red t-shirt and folded it out revealing the words on the front. _Keep Calm and Watch YouTube._ She held back a laugh as Melissa picked up her own purple t-shirt with the same sentence printed in white, rather than black.

“We match, see?”

Melissa threw off her pyjamas in a very rushed fashion, pulling on a pair of black pants and the t-shirt with enthusiasm. Once the girls were dressed, they ate a breakfast of muesli and yoghurt in the restaurant downstairs. They enjoyed it, but they couldn’t have known it would be their last together. Melissa practically ran through the streets, Hannah at a near-jog behind her as they headed for the Anaheim Convention Centre.

“Mel, calm down! You have all day to be hyperactive,” Hannah said from behind her, clearly feeling lethargic after being woke up so early. 

Melissa stopped and waited for Hannah who was three metres behind her. She pointed to the building, smiling widely.

“We’re here. And that’s the only reason I stopped. There’s a café just down that street when we want to go for lunch. You ready Hannah?” Hannah gave her own happy smile.

“Hell yeah! Let’s go,” forcing excitement and a hint of enjoyment into her tone of voice

Melissa led the way through the doors and their mouths fell open. Markiplier and a few of the better-known YouTubers were on the ground floor at desks, waiting to sign pictures of themselves, their channel logos behind them on big banners. Next to each of them was a timer set for 60 seconds to talk with each fan. Melissa certainly didn't regret bringing her empty autograph book now.

“Who should we see first?” Hannah asked, her excitement now genuine.

“How about Markiplier? I showed you that video of him with Wade, Matthias and that other guy reading tweets with music on?” Melissa asked with a big smile.

Hannah nodded and they walked over to the que, surprised by the fact that only 20 people were in front of them. The first person left and Melissa’s knees got weak at the thought of being closer to the front of the line.

“I’m headed to go see PewDiePie. His line is the longest and I want to get a picture of the most famous person in the room to get something out of this. Why did you have to bring me along, Mel?” Hannah said. 

Melissa shook her head at Hannah, knowing it was her extreme sarcasm talking.

“That’s a lie and you know it: **you** are going to sneak off and see Jacksepticeye if he’s here, right?” Melissa grinned. 

Hannah grinned mischievously in return, pushing aside a dirty blonde strand of hair that was annoying her.

“You know me too well. It’s no fun,” she teased.

Hannah waved goodbye and left Melissa in the line, anticipation building up the closer she got to the table. Every few minutes she would look around the que and see Mark chatting and smiling with his blue dyed hair. _I’m such a sad person. All I can do is look at him like those really weird fangirls who drool over hot guys. I will **not** be that kind of fangirl!_ Melissa finally got to the first place in line as Markiplier put out a hand for her to take.

“Hi! I’m Markiplier,” Mark said to Melissa.

Melissa shook his hand with a nervous smile, the feeling of sickness in her stomach getting worse. _Why do I feel sick? I only ever feel sick when I smell blood, but where is it coming from?_ Mark’s hand dropped and his eyes widened, looking to her far right.

“Oh my God! Run!” Mark shouted to the people in line.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed Melissa’s hand hard and pulled her away from the line of fans. The fans followed him, running in different directions as they got out the doors.

“Where’s the other girl you were with?” Mark said, recalling that the girl had been with another young woman in line with her.

Melissa huffed and looked at Mark, barely holding back a harsh comment as he stared at her. _Okay, remain calm, Markiplier wants to talk to you… don’t be a fangirl, be a human and worry about Hannah!_ Mark was still waiting for an answer.

“She’s still in their but I don’t know why we all left,” Melissa said as confusion flooded her mind.

As if giving her a reply, a zombie covered in blood staggered out of the building, holding a piece of a red t-shirt. Melissa said nothing as the zombie let it go and charged at them, her survival instincts kicking in. She grabbed the zombie by the arms and kicked it in the stomach, blood and flesh pouring out of its mouth. Mark hit the zombie hard across the temples with a balled up fist and knocked him out. If they weren’t in a life-or-death-situation, he would have high-fived the brave teenager next to him. They both felt a chill run up their spine as a ruckus of screams and squelching sounds came form the Anaheim Centre, echoing through the large rooms.

“Good job with that zombie,” Mark said, wishing that he hadn't been so awkward about it.

Melissa gave a give weak smile, hearing the flatness in his voice.

“You too,” she said with a quick nod.

There was an awkward silence as Mark and Melissa stalked their way toward the Anaheim Centre. They both peeked around the side of the doorway, Mark barely able to look over the girl’s head. In front of them bodies were strewn about, innards scattered here and there as if all the zombies had thrown them around like snowballs. The screams of more victims could be heard in the distance and slowly grew quieter. Mark gagged and Melissa ducked underneath him, slowly walking into the room. _Where are you Hannah?_ Mark followed Melissa, knowing he might be the only person to keep her company until they died.  _Thank God I got fit otherwise this would be impossible!_ Melissa walked past the bodies, tears stinging her eyes. _No Hannah yet, so she might be alive. Might._

“Can you see any survivors?” Mark asked the girl.

"No, not yet," she said solemnly.

Mark kept his mind open to the idea of finding somebody, hoping that they would at least keep his mind off of the girl. He hated himself for it, but he didn’t see her as a fan: for the moment, she was like a daughter. Mark had sworn to himself that he would always be there for his fans. Now that he had the chance, he would make his father and his fans proud.

“What’s your name?” Melissa turned around in surprise, hiding it well.

“I’m Melissa, Melissa Brown.” Mark smiled.

“Well you certainly know who I am, judging by that shirt."

Melissa looked down and grinned.

“Yes I do and I’m sure you wouldn’t appreciate a fangirl annoying the hell out of you,” she said flatly "Besides, we should be focused on finding my friend and any survivors. Are you okay with that?”

Mark’s mouth was mentally dropping onto the floor. _No girly screams about thinking I’m hot? Best day ever!_

“Couldn’t agree more. Is your friend wearing anything that would stand out?” he asked delicately.

“Yeah, a top just like mine. The only difference is that it’s red and black and she had jeans on,” Melissa said as if she had a list of Hannah's clothing inscribed on the inside of her head.

Mark stared off into the distance and made a small gesture with a finger for Melissa to come toward him.

“What?” she whispered loudly enough for Mark to hear.

Unfortunately, whatever was behind her heard as well. Melissa felt something sharp hit her shoulder, slicing it. She lashed out at it with all her might, fists flying into the face of a zombie. She let out a pained grunt as blood leaked from the gash in her shoulder, Mark pushing the zombie away as it fell. _She’s a hard hitter… better than being weak._

“We can’t stay here, Mark,” Melissa said as she began hissing at the horrid sting in her shoulder.

“Any ideas?” Melissa put a hand to her right shoulder and found it wet with blood. Her mind wandered for a second, but she brought it back to the situation at hand.

“My injury will attract the zombies, so I need to stop the bleeding and sanitize it. Plus we need to find supplies like food,” she said as she forced herself to hold back tears.

Apparently zombies taking a god chunk out of your shoulder was equal to having your entire arm removed. Mark put a hand on her other shoulder as gently as he could, trying not to seem creepy. He usually didn't, but he was making an extra effort.

“Do you trust me?” he said as he held her eyes.

Melissa didn’t know what to say. Yes or no were too simple for such a complicated situation. _If I confuse him, maybe he won’t think about the zombies as much._

“I do, I just don’t trust myself,” she said with a quick glance toward the ground, now spattered with her blood.

 _Not a word of a lie._ Mark led her through the doors, walking ahead of Melissa a little. She kept up; occasionally she put a hand back on the gash to make sure the bleeding was slowing down. Finally the pair stumbled into the back door of the coffee shop she had taken note of earlier. They sat down behind the counter, exhausted after walking around for the last half-hour or so at top speed. Luckily, no zombies had gotten in their way. Melissa was staring at Mark, whose eyes burnt holes in the ground.

“Was anyone with you? Like Wade or Bob?” Melissa said as her mind worked overtime to figure out why this had happened and where else they could go.

Mark glanced at Melissa and focused on the floor again.

“Jack was, but that’s about it.”

Melissa followed his gaze and she let a tear slide down her cheek.

“That’s who Hannah went to see before the zombies came in. She loved Jack’s videos and she didn't want to miss out on the meet-and-greets,” Melissa said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Mark wanted to cry too, but he stopped himself. 

“We might find someone else, so don’t lose hope yet,” he said assuringly. 

Melissa couldn’t help but change the subject: the day had been to grim already. As she opened her mouth to speak, something made of metal clanged on the ground in the kitchen behind them. Thinking quickly, Melissa walked over to a wooden chair, smashed it against the floor and picked up two legs.

“Something’s in there and I’m not dying without a fight,” she said as anger surged through her veins.

Mark wordlessly followed Melissa, amazed at how calm she could be. _Cool as a cucumber… wish I could do that in my videos._

“Hello? Is anyone here?” came a light airy, feminine voice.

Melissa looked at Mark in confusion.

“I’ve heard that voice before… it sounds Italian,” Mel;issa said as her anger became a mix of frustration and confusion.

Mark practically read her mind. Melissa nodded and immediately after seeing who it was, felt like face-palming herself.

“Are you both okay? I’m not a zombie I promise,” said the older woman.

Melissa grinned and the woman returned it despite looking rather shaken.

“I can tell that you aren’t. Zombies are butt-ugly,” Melissa jibed as her grin became a smile.

Mark snorted as he held back a laugh, happy to find that Melissa had a sense of humour.

“Who is insulting my girlfriend!? I swear to God if you insult my lady I’ll fuck you up, bro!” said a high-pitched man from behind the counter, suddenly making an appearance.

Melissa’s mouth dropped. Not one metre away was Felix Kjellberg and his girlfriend Marzia Bisognin.

“Mark? What are you doing hanging around with my fangirls?” Felix joked.

Marzia hit him in the shoulder lightly, finding his joke a little too on the nose.

“Sorry. I was just trying to keep everyone cheerful. Who’re you?” he asked, taking note of a girl next to Mark.

last he remembered, Mark had no children, so who could she be? Melissa wasn’t sure what to say, but her name seemed like the best place to start. _PewDiePie, Markiplier, who’s next?_

“Melissa Brown. Nice to meet you,” Melissa said with an awkward I-wish-I-was-somewhere-else-right-now face. combined with her smile

Felix saw the blood on her shoulder and his mouth became as wide as a whale shark’s.

“What the hell happened with your shoulder?” Felix blurted out.

Melissa stayed quiet and glanced at mark, not sure if she should tell them a zombie took a swing at her and that she had taken it down. that would be an insult to his manliness.

“If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to,” felix said quickly, trying to salvage the conversation.

Without another word, Felix, Marzia, Mark and Melissa all started searching for food, water and a way to get upstairs. It was a time of grieving for Mark and Melissa as they clambered through the giant pantry at the end of a hallway, a single body sprawled out on the floor. They would come back for the woman later. They gathered up cans, boxes, bags and fresh produce from the shelving, Felix and Marzia pitching in half way through the scavenging. They all went upstairs with the supplies and sat in a small lounge room. Felix was sitting on one couch with Marzia’s legs over his lap while Mark was next to Melissa on another. When the group heard a scream, they all went to a window and saw a wave of zombies move up the road. It was like a flooding river of death. They were safe... for now. Creeping carefully back to the couches, Marzia decided to leave her feet on the ground despite sitting next to her boyfriend.

“We have plenty of food and running water, so we’re okay on that front at least,” Melissa said with some semblance of a smile.

Marzia looked at Felix as if she expected him to answer a question she hadn’t even asked.

“Where are you from Melissa? You don’t sound American or Canadian,” he said with a glint in his eye.

Melissa found it odd that nobody else had picked up on it, especially Mark.

“No, I’m from Australia,” she said in reply, giving a few nods.

Somehow she thought this would confirm her nationality, but the accent was definitely enough. Felix hadn’t met anybody from Australia and decided to use this opportunity to ask about life ‘down under’. But not like that.

“Is it very hot? Like... burn-your-ass-if-you-sit-on-a-rock-too-long kind of hot?” he said eagerly.

Melissa laughed.

“Yes. Especially if you walk on the cement and the sun is out all day. It burns like you wouldn’t believe,” she said as a smile crept across her lips.

Marzia hit Felix in the shoulder a little harder than she had before. 

“What did I do woman!?” said Felix, his voice going up a whole octave as he half yelled at Marzia.

“You keep swearing when you talk to her Felix! It’s not polite,” Marzia warned her partner sternly.

Mark had a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing at the argument. _Time to break them up before they kill each other._

“If she’s a fan of mine or Mark’s then obviously she’s okay with it,” Felix countered.

They all turned to Melissa.

“I’m fine with it, honestly. If I couldn’t deal with foul language then I would be a fan of either of you,” Melissa said rather seriously.

Felix smiled and whispered to Marzia, the petite woman giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“So, where do we go from here? Should we go back to the Anaheim Centre or wait for someone to find us?” mark said as they began to dwell on the situation at hand.

Melissa was glad that Mark had taken over her role as leader or whatever she had been doing for the past few hours. _At least I have people who care about me for now: that’s all I need to keep me going till I find you Hannah._


	2. Mummy Marzia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa goes downstairs to investigate the sound of smashing glass and the group gets a surprise visitor...

Melissa hadn’t noticed it yet, but not one person in the room was talking. They had all zoned out for a good 5 minutes when a sound of breaking glass from downstairs brought them back into reality. Melissa bolted down the staircase and nobody had the time to stop her. They just sat or stood around quietly and waited. She was amazed to have found a ginger kitten next to a glass ‘tips’ jar on the ground. It that had been full of coins, which were now spilt over the floor. Melissa was just glad that it hadn’t been zombies.

“Come here you cheeky thing,” she said as she picked up the kitten, playfully swiping her finger.

The kitten jumped out of her hands, running out of the café without so much as a meow goodbye.

“Ow!” Melissa said as she nursed the cut that was on the upper half of her stomach. 

Melissa looked up and saw something that the group would need to survive, finding it more uplifting than the kitten. _A first aid kit!_ Upstairs, Mark was getting nervous, even more so than Felix and Marzia. Felix however, wasn't happy with him.

“Why the fuck did you let her go down by herself?” he said angrily to Mark.

Marzia felt like telling Felix off but she knew it was pointless. Melissa stood by the doorway out of their view, listening in on the conversation.

“Well… why don’t you two take her under your wing?" Mark replied sneakily, hoping Felix would drop the subject.

Felix's eyes went wide. _WHAT?!_

"You’re probably going to have your own family someday,” Mark taunted.

Marzia smiled at the thought of her and Felix having children. Melissa was smiling like an idiot. in a state of lost thought, Mark found himself thinking about that for far too long. _The story itself would probably be enough to break Youtube like The Force Awakens trailer!_

“And so will you, when you find somebody," Marzia said with a smile.

Felix and Mark looked at Marzia, amazed at how confident she sounded when she'd said it.

“What? It’s possible for anybody to find a man or woman that likes them,” Marzia protested to a bewildered Felix and Mark.

Melissa walked in, nobody noticing her until the first aid kit hit her leg just above one knee. _Damn these long arms!_

“I have a welcome surprise,” Melissa smiled as she walked in.

Lightly shaking the first aid kit, its contents rattled in the green and pale-grey case. Melissa hurriedly sat the kit on the ground in front of the couch she and Mark were sharing, picking out bandages and a tube of anti-septic cream. She took everything into the nearby bathroom while the adults stayed silent. She pulled up her sleeve and saw her shoulder.

“Holy crap!” Melissa shouted, taking in the gory details.

Melissa could see her shoulder in the small mirror: her shoulder had a long gash across the roundest part, no deeper than one and a half centimetres at best. The gash was surrounded by bruising, blood and - in the deepest parts of the wound - a strange green gunge. Marzia had been voted to go in as a precaution. They couldn’t possibly predict whether or not Melissa had taken off her shirt to see her work better and she was the only other woman with them. Marzia closed the door, eyes wide and staring at the girl’s shoulder.

“Oh my God! What happened?” Marzia said in a loud whisper.

Melissa looked at Marzia, thinking carefully. _Honesty **is** the best policy, so..._

“A zombie tried to kill me but instead he hit my shoulder. Can you see some kind of wash cloth in here? I need to clean this before I even think of the cream or putting on bandages,” Melissa said as casually as she could manage.

There was no sense in causing a panic if she wasn't bleeding out or dying yet. Marzia pulled a towel from the shower and gave it to Melissa.

“Put a hand on your mouth. If the boys hear screaming they’ll think something happened and just come running in like a stampede,” Marzia said, thinking things through.

She doubted Melissa would want to upset the 'boys' since she seemed so intent on being away from them whenever possible. Melissa held back a laugh, dampened the towel in the sink and used it to slowly clean her shoulder while Marzia held up her sleeve. When she was done, she threw the towel onto the shower floor and put a sparing layer of anti-septic cream onto the bandage that touched her open skin, quickly wrapping up her arm. It burnt like hell.  Melissa thought it best to use as little as possible in case they needed it later, especially if a survivor was in a worse condition than she was. As Marzia gently pulled the sleeve down Melissa winced, the dry bandage clinging to her blood-wet bare flesh.

“Does it hurt?” Marzia said with concern.

“No, it feels great,” Melissa replied with a sarcastic smirk.

Marzia ignored it, waiting outside for Melissa to clean up her clothes in the sink. After a while, she emerged with a wet patch on her shoulder, the blood leaving a slightly darker shade of purple in place of the deep red. Nobody noticed the smile on Mark’s face. _Hell, what am I doing? She can take care of herself just fine without **any** of us._

“It’s alive!” Felix said dramatically while he was looking at Melissa, pretending to be some kind of mad scientist seeing his creature come to life.

Melissa laughed and sat the first aid kit between the two couches on a coffee table.

“We got lucky. There was nothing downstairs but a ginger kitten. It knocked over a tips jar and then ran away; now there’s coins and glass everywhere on the floor," Melissa said glumly.

When Melissa gestured to the area of wall where she thought the stairs were, her shoulder ached and she was forced to stop moving it.

“So you didn’t see any people? Not one?” Mark said with confusion.

Melissa looked at Mark and shook her head.

“If there was anyone downstairs I would’ve –”

The sudden sound of a door closing put a stunned silence over the group. Someone was walking up the staircase, their curiosity urging them on. The stranger was getting closer and closer, the tension building up until they opened the door. Mark, Melissa, Marzia and Felix all breathed easy, knowing that the man in front of them was no stranger.


	3. Jack and the Nerds Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacksepticeye has joined Mark, Marzia Felix and Melissa, but everybody is on edge. Melissa blames Jack for Hannah's disappearance and possible death, but he assures her he didn't see a girl with a red and black shirt. Comedy and much more follow in this new instalment...

Melissa wasn’t sure how to react. In front of her stood Jacksepticeye, the man Hannah had wanted to see before the zombies came flooding into the Anaheim Convention Centre. Jack was one of Melissa’s biggest crushes since Adam Driver and she’d been too scared to admit it to herself: one of the many things, anyways. Jack spoke and he gave the group an awkward smile.

“Mark? Felix? Marzia? Who are you?” jack said in puzzlement.

“A nerd, nothing special,” Melissa said sarcastically.

The man laughed as Mark stood up and walked to him, giving him a hug that could’ve launched a thousand fanfictions. Melissa was a little pissed off at Jack, but she could never blame him for her friend being a fan and wanting to go see him: not really. _He is so funny in his videos, but I wonder what he’s like in real life? Only one way to find out…_ Melissa watched the hug break up and Jack sat between her and Mark, their hips close together. Jack seemed tense and every person in the room had picked up on it.

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Mark said, earning a punch in the shoulder from Jack.

“You asshole! You know exactly what I’ve seen…” Jack’s eyes went to the floor, remembering the girl he’d seen join his cue.

She looked excited, happy to see him like the others were. _Were…_

“…those bastards are everywhere! Some girl joined the line for meet-and-greets and then they tore through and killed just about everyone. They started to spit out blood and went all weird-coloured, got up and chased me down the road,” Jack said as his face grew pale.

Melissa leaned forward a little to see this change and wanted to keep calm, but she had an important question to ask.

“The girl that joined the line, was she wearing a shirt like mine, but red and black?” she asked eagerly.

Jack motioned for Melissa to move back so he could see the shirt.

“What happens if I say no?” He said with a severe look on his face.

Melissa’s heart seemed to mend itself slowly, gaining the hope she had been clinging to desperately.

“Then my friend Hannah might still be alive,” Melissa said as her smile faded to wavering optimism.

Jack looked at the ground and then shifted his gaze to Felix and Marzia, finally settling back on Melissa.

“And if I say yes?” Jack asked, trying hard not to stare at the floor again

Her eyes lost their shine.

“It would still be a possibility either way. I’m not giving up on anybody being dead till I see a corpse,” she said defiantly.

Felix was grossed out and couldn’t help but voice his opinion; old habits die hard.

“How the hell could you say that? Don’t you have any brain cells? Jesus Christ!” Felix blurted out.

Melissa was fed up with being the damsel in distress and it was time everybody knew it.

“Well I’m not sitting here any longer waiting for people to come through with wounds worse than mine. I’m going out whether you all want me to or not and I’m finding survivors. That was the original plan but suddenly we turned to meaningless conversation. See you later Felix,” Melissa half-shouted as her aggression got the better of her.

Melissa got up and Mark grabbed at her arm, making her even more aggravated. She managed to dodge it and tore down the stairs. Marzia had a hand over her mouth and Felix felt like a jerk. _Great! I just sent a fan to death row: wait for it..._  Marzia slapped Felix hard on the leg and he jumped a little, rubbing where she'd hit him. _There it is._ Mark and Jack chased Melissa downstairs as she picked up one of the chair legs from the café floor, the two men calling out to her. Mark was louder and Jack just stood still, waiting to see what would happen.

“Melissa, come back! It’s not safe out there!” Mark said loudly.

Melissa turned furious eyes in Mark’s direction, Jack backing up when he saw her face. _Holy **crap** she is angry!_ Mark huffed loudly, ridding himself of any leftover stress he'd put into calling her name.

“It’s not safe anywhere, for anyone," she said desperately "I can’t stand to think that we could be up there chatting and miss out on saving somebody from being torn to pieces by zombies. Don’t you get that at all?”

Jack stepped toward the stairs, feeling the tension rise between Mark and the self-proclaimed ‘nerd’.

“I have an idea; why don’t we go back up, calm our shit and think of a game-plan until the government starts killing those fuckers instead of getting **ourselves** killed by being stupid and running out into the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse?” jack said in one breath.

Mark and Melissa were looking at Jack and they both sighed, Melissa walking over and giving him a simple apology.

“Sorry for being an ass. I’m just worried that I’ll be a burden and let everybody down,” melissa said with blinding honesty.

Mark put an arm around her shoulder's and she felt like she was going to faint.

“Well… I’ll forgive you on one condition,” Mark said with a mischievous smile.

Melissa grinned.

“And what would that be?” Melissa said expectantly.

Mark let her go and she felt a little happier already, knowing he had her back, **literally**.

“Stop frowning so much. Tell us boring jokes if you have to, I don’t care! I just hate seeing people get upset. You’re doing well so far,” mark assured her.

Melissa followed Mark and Jack back up the stairs, prepared for Felix to insult her further as she expected him to. Instead, he was in conversation with Marzia and stood up as they entered the room, his hands moving behind one of the couches cushions nearest to her.

“Told you so!” Felix pulled the cushion away and pointed enthusiastically toward folded up metal. There was a big smile on his face and it seemed as if his anger had disappeared.

“Fold out couches: now we have somewhere to sleep. Thank you Jesus!” he exclaimed.

“Weren’t you just taking his name in vain about 2 minutes ago?” said Melissa, walking in with a raised eyebrow behind Mark and Jack. 

They expected a fight to break out and they weren't about to let a teenager go up against a grown man.

“You can sit down you know. It’s a free country. I was being rude as usual and you’re right. We should be doing more with the time we have. God knows how long we’ve got,” Felix said with a serious tone to his voice. 

Marzia was surprised at how serious Felix was and it made her smile. _I wish he was like that more often._ Melissa sat down with Mark and Jack by her side and she kept her eyes on Felix.

“So… any ideas about the sleeping arrangements? It’s almost night time,” she said without skipping a beat. 

Felix looked out of the window and watched the sun drift slowly downward toward the Earth, as if meaning to hit it.

“Well Marzia and I could probably share this bed with one other person. That means you three have to decide who goes with us and who shares the other lounge with Melissa, I guess,” Felix said, assuming they could all work it out amongst themselves.

Mark’s mouth dropped. _I get the feeling this going to go all sorts of wrong, like Drunk Minecraft wrong._

“You want her to sleep next to one of us?!” Jack said with shock written across his face.

Melissa was happy that Jack felt the same way; it wouldn’t be fair if only one person felt awkward about it.

“Maybe this one folds out too. If it does we’ll have heaps of space between us,” Melissa said with a smile.

Mark closed his mouth and nodded without anyone noticing. Melissa checked for the folded metal, but there was none and she secretly had a mini freak-out. Stranger Danger was the one thing she had always been taught and now she'd have to trust Jack or Mark to keep their hands to themselves. Being men, she couldn't possibly say, but they were too nice to be pervs. Her fears ebbed away as quickly as they'd appeared and she spoke again.

“If you two can’t make a decision I’ll just flip a damn coin because this anticipation is killing me,” Melissa said angrily.

Jack nodded and Mark just sat there, searching through his pockets. Pulling out a Star Wars themed wallet, he carefully removed a penny and sat it on his thumb.

“Heads or tails Jacky Boy?” Mark teased.

Melissa held back her laughter and just smiled like the fangirl she was.

“Personally I prefer tails,” Jack said, causing Melissa to let out a hyena-like burst of laughter.

Felix joined in, picking up on the innuendo. Mark, Marzia and Jack were left feeling innocent, not knowing what was so funny until the last minute.

“You guys are so dirty-minded!” Mark said, pretending to be disturbed.

Melissa had finally calmed down, but Felix still had a couple more airless giggles to go before he could speak without gasping.

“No, we have a sexy imagination,” Melissa said, getting a brofist from Felix.

Mark flipped the coin and shouted “Call it in the air Jack!”

“Tails!” he screeched.

Mark slammed an open-palmed hand onto the coin, pushing it against his forearm. He slid it further along his arm to the back of his right hand, letting them see the result.

“Well, there you go!”

 


	4. Call of Duty (to Friendship)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now we know who Melissa may be sleeping next to, but what will somebody say that starts up more fighting than had been solved?

“That means Melissa has to sleep with Jack.” Melissa hated it: being negative, but Felix’s comment only made things sound worse than they really were. Mark stood up, walked to Felix and punched him in stomach, making everybody jump out of their skin. She knew that he’d seen the odd frown she had and took it as her feeling uncomfortable.

“Mark!” Melissa didn’t know what she was going to do, but getting Mark’s attention away from Felix seemed to be the best option she had.

“Anyone ever taught you how to keep your mouth shut, Felix?!”

“Mark, stop.” The anger in Melissa’s voice left Mark’s hands clenched up in angry fists as he looked at her, hatred hiding behind his dark eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that!”

 

Melissa glanced between the two men, her tone of voice getting lower.

“The tension between you two is so high I think the ceiling rose up by a whole metre since we got here. We need to work together, not try and kill each other.” Marzia cut in, wanting her say in the argument for the sake of keeping the group together.

“She’s right. You two need to stay here and sort whatever this is while we go with Jack and put some food together.” Marzia and Melissa left with Jack in hot pursuit, not wanting to stay behind and listen to Mark and Felix bicker about their inappropriate behaviour toward one another. Melissa and Marzia searched through the food, quickly going through what they knew how to cook. After a few minutes, they decided on a no-meat version of spaghetti Bolognese, taking short, spiral noodles down the stairs with a few other ingredients they would need.

 

Jack watched the girls bar the doors with tables – of course he helped out – to be sure that nothing caught onto the scent of the food or barged in unexpectedly. Jack stood to the side while Melissa was cooking the sauce with Marzia. She looked at him and cocked her head to the side slightly, a question plaguing her mind.

“Do you mind being called Jack? I know it isn’t your real name.” He smiled, secretly happy that somebody .

“Sean can be a pretty weird name, especially when people pronounce it like ‘seam’ with an ‘n’ on the end. I use Jack because there’s no other way to say it and people say it so much.” Melissa smiled as Marzia tapped her on the shoulder, smiles floating between them as she whispered something in the younger woman’s ear. Jack thought he heard Marzia say something, but he figured asking Melissa was a better option.

“What did Marzia just say?”

 

“She thinks we make a cute couple.” Jack nodded and then froze.

“Did you just try an Irish accent on me? An Irishman of all people?” Melissa was glad that Jack wanted to see her smile

“Alright, Jack? Could you take the pot over to that sink and pour out the pasta?” Melissa grinned and Marzia looked at her.

“What did I do?” Melissa dropped the grin and forced herself to be serious. Jack carried away the pasta in the pot and walked it to the sink, wary of the boiling water inside.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you Marzia?” Jack nearly dropped the pot of pasta as he slid it's contents into a strainer.

 

“What makes you think that?”

“You aren’t doing any heavy lifting; your partner – in your case Felix the nutcase upstairs – seemed to be really protective of you when we first met and when you smelled that sauce you looked nauseas. Anything I’ve missed other than the due date?” Jack was standing by the sink, looking between Marzia and Melissa, completely lost for words.

“In about 3 weeks I have the baby.”

“What?!” Jack and Melissa had given Marzia the same reaction, delayed by a couple of seconds. It was like she had been standing between two TV’s that were on the same channel.

“I barely gained weight like my mother did with me and I told Felix my morning sickness was because of the hot weather here and back at home. Should I tell him?”

 

Jack stepped forward and lightly sat a hand on Marzia’s shoulder.

“Two things you need to know first: does he want kids and would he worry about it too much, given what’s going on?” Marzia huffed lightly and Jack tightened his grip on her shoulder to show his support of whatever she thought was best.

“We can keep a secret, right Melissa?” Melissa shook her head.

“Not unless you tell me one thing, deal?” Marzia gave them a small grin.

“What?”

“Is it a boy or a girl?” Marzia dropped her smile gradually and whispered in Melissa’s ear.

“Oh, okay then. That was disappointing.” Jack put two and two together and figured it out on his own.

 

“She doesn’t know?” Melissa shook her head again, a hint of eagerness in her eyes.

“Nope… and neither does Felix.” Marzia interrupted their conversation with a tap on Jack’s shoulder. He let go of hers and gave her a light hug, not wanting to put any bruises on the baby. If he did, Felix would be putting bruises on him.

“Congratulations Marzia.” Jack didn’t want to say anymore. He hadn’t ever thought of having children in his life and his thoughts were dragging back to the sleeping arrangements. It seemed to be in everybody’s best interests to check on Felix and Mark.

“I’ll go see if those two need a referee.” Marzia and Melissa were laughing until Jack got to the stairs and he took comfort in knowing somebody was able to. He opened the door and saw Felix and Mark sitting next to each other, chatting quietly as if they were about to cry.

 

Jack went to close the door and leave but Felix called him back in.

“We got off topic, but were over it now. So, what are they making?” Jack put his tongue in his cheek for a moment.

“It feels kind of racist, but their making pasta. They both knew how to make it so they just grabbed everything from down the hall outside and got to it.”

“Women know how to cook. That’s the only reason men don’t go in the kitchen: we just fuck everything up and let the women fix it. Leaving them in the kitchen gives us time to play horror games.” Felix’s comment left Jack and Mark in stitches, both men barely holding back their high-pitched laughter. Felix joined in as the women they had spoken of so jokingly of walked in with 5 steaming bowls of pasta, their first meal together.

 

Nobody noticed that Marzia was carrying two bowls but it didn’t seem out of the ordinary to Mark or Felix, so they took a random bowl without question, setting them on their laps. Jack couldn’t resist the urge to make a joke about keeping warm to take their minds off of the growing darkness. Melissa flicked a switch to put on the light, noticing where the men had all sat the bowls. _Oh no… someone’s going to say something weird now, aren’t they? Then I’ll probably go back down those stairs and this will be some crazy, vicious cycle._

“This looks good, but where did the forks go?” _Never mind Jack! I got this one in the bag._

”Sorry. I put way too much chilli in there and they melted.” Mixed reactions as she had expected form people who only had their profession as common ground. Felix didn’t seem amused at all, Mark was smiling at her, Marzia actually believed her and asked Felix to try it first, but Jack had the reaction she’d expected the least.

 

“Oh well, looks like we’ll all be on the floor trying to keep back from any source of heat tonight.” Mark tensed up as she walked out of the room to go get the forks and waited outside for the sound of Jack being punched or slapped across the face. Nothing. Having convinced herself that everybody was finally over the sleeping arrangements once and for all, Melissa descended the stairs and retrieved spoons. At first they all seemed to want to complain and quickly realised that the lack of meat meant the sauce would keep falling through the forks stainless-steel prongs.

“Someone has a head on their shoulders.” Melissa shook her head, blowing gently over the small spoon she had found after dipping it into the pasta and it’s sauce.

“I’d like to think so, considering women need a head to live.” Felix looked up from his bowl and his voice took on a questioning tone.

 

“What about men? Don’t we have a head as well?”

“Of course: but you need two.” Mark snorted back a laugh along with Jack, who nearly spat out his food on the floor. Melissa was grinning as she liked to, enjoying the taste of the pasta as it slid down her throat. The taste of a tomato made her cringe, but she was so hungry it didn't matter anymore.

“You guys aren’t the only funny people on Earth. You know that right?” Mark made a threatened face and looked at Felix, a smile flooding across his face just before he finished his sentence.

“Oh no! She’s onto us!” Mark laughed and Jack shook his head in shame.

“You guys pick on women too much. You’re supposed to treat a lady like a potato.”

“Melissa cover your ears, things are about to get crazy.” Jack laughed hard and everybody stopped eating to hear him.

 

“Because you need to take care of them and treat them nicely. What we’re you thinking?” Melissa continued to eat while the men argued over what Jack had really meant by the potato metaphor, fitting in a spoonful of their dinner when they weren’t talking. Marzia was glad to see that everyone was getting along well, even if the girls were pushed aside every now and then for ‘boy talk’.

 

 

If you want to guess what Mark and Felix were talking about with the potatoes, please put your suggestion in the comments and I’ll tell you when someone gets it right. Also, this is now definitely as far as I can go with the story until I get those suggestions, so join me in the world of zombies and YouTube Celebrities!


	5. Truthful or Daring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This game is an old favourite, but what secrets will be revealed by a friendly game of truth or dare?
> 
> Of course, I don't know the true answers to these questions, but I made them up according to everyone's personality: for instance, I branded Mark as an accidental trouble maker and incorporated the fact that he went to college (I get the feeling it has a different name in America).  
> I am still waiting for someone to comment and tell me which of the other men should go in so the story can progress so HELP ME OUT!

Since we have 100 hits I think we need to have some character development: enjoy!

 

Everyone had finished eating and Mark had decided that he and Felix would do the dishes as the other three had made the food for the group to enjoy. _What did he say? Wasn’t it something like ‘It’s only fair’?_ Marzia and Felix were back on the couch together when the dishes were done, the fold-out opened up for them to lie on. Mark broke the silence while Melissa was talking to Jack about living in Ireland, interrupting the encyclopaedia-long history lesson he was giving her. They had laid themselves out in front of the two lounges on their stomachs, a little less than a metre from one another’s faces. Mark knew that she was interested in the conversation, but he was bored out of his head with nobody to talk to other than himself. Felix was still holding a grudge from the punch, but he listened to Mark anyway. Staring at your girlfriend’s face – no matter how beautiful it was – could be boring as well. There was jack’s hair but even the green locks had become rather saddening.

“Who wants to play a game?” Melissa raised an eyebrow, earning a laugh from Felix.

“Well you have the eyebrow’s attention. So what game did you want to play?”

 

“Something truthful and daring.” Melissa picked up on Mark’s clue quickly, a shocked yet joyous smile spread across her face in an instant.

“Truth or dare?!” Jack laughed at Melissa’s obvious excitement.

“Calm down! It’s only a game.”

“I know that, but now I get to play it with people I know very little about, let alone get to meet every day.” The four adults had a sudden realisation: none of them had been treating Melissa like a fan. They were treating her like a shy girl who was stuck in a bad situation; they were entertainers and all they’d done is fought over her like an object. She was a person too and she deserved to be treated in that manner, the group unknowingly making a pact: help her through this with what humour they had to offer.

“Well, I’m sitting on the floor.” Marzia made the announcement and Jack watched her carefully slide away from Felix, who followed her down to the floor, sitting cross-legged like school children.

 

 Melissa sat up along with Jack, leaving Mark to trail behind and drop his rear into the floor and slide his jeans across the carpet. Melissa stifled a laugh, her mind likening it to a dog that was dragging itself across the floor to scratch an itch it couldn’t reach on its own.

“So, who’s going first?” Mark looked around and saw that Jack had eagerly raised his hand.

“Take one guess Mel.” Melissa dropped her mouth wide open, her eyes following suit.

“Since when did you start calling me Mel?”

“Since now… just cause I can.” Mark’s southern accent made Felix snigger and Melissa only stared at the floor, giving the carpet a ‘what-the-hell-was-that’ expression that Jack saw and he read it like a book.

“Aaw, did he embarrass you?”Melissa lost her awkward smile and took on a serious glare that Felix couldn’t take seriously. While he laughed Mark felt a little uncomfortable, but when he saw a blush touch her cheeks he knew she was trying not to make her feelings obvious.

 

“No, but you are Jacky-boy. I say we play it as a group: everyone does truth or everyone does the dare. No backing out.” Jack had to retort: it was in his nature.

“What if you’re too uncomfortable to do it?” Melissa stared at him and smiled wryly.

“If you’re sensible enough to make a dare I’m sure you’d leave a loophole or not get into the specifics. You ask the group first and we’ll vote on truth or dare: majority rules. If it turns out even, then the person asking a truth or making the dare picks for us. Sound fair to you guys?” Felix huffed.

“Shit. You know how to take charge.”

“And I have a hefty left hook.” Melissa smiled and Felix laughed again: _I swear he finds everything I do hilarious! I bet he’d make a great dad to his kids!_

“Okay guys, truth or dare?” Mark was the first to speak up.

“No daring dares for me!”

“Felix? Marzia?” Marzia whispered into Felix’s ear and he smiled.

 

“Truth for us as well.”

“Okay Jack, majority says truth. Take it away.”

“Alright, let me see… ah… gee this is harder than playing Undertale drunk.” Melissa pulled her lips in toward her teeth and forced a smile to dissipate as she held back her fit of laughter. Undertale was her favourite game to watch him play and the way he got pissed off when he was sober had gotten him plenty of subscribers. To play it drunk however – without the limitations of thought – would be so much better.

“Okay, who was the first person you ever kissed?” He looked straight at Melissa and she saw his cheeky grin, tilted her head back and closed her eyes tightly.

“Oh come on!” Her head flipped back down and her eyes opened as she sighed.

“I still haven’t had my first kiss yet.” She looked at Mark and smiled, gesturing to him with her head.

“Your turn.” Mark grinned.

 

“A chick named Candice when I was 19: we made out in my dorm room and then she slapped me when her boyfriend walked in.” Felix had something to say and Jack wasn’t afraid to join in.

“Burn!” Melissa and Marzia were unimpressed and the two men stopped calling out the single teasing word when they saw their faces. They were actually quite fierce when they wanted to be.

“You two were just silenced by staring women: double burn!” Mark smiled proudly at his comment and wished that he could take a picture of everybody’s faces: absolutely priceless! The next thing that happened wasn’t so priceless: shouts and screams were coming from the café: a man’s screaming. Recognising the voice immediately, Melissa’s heart sank. _Dear god… **he** is downstairs? Of all people on Earth, **he** is calling for help?_ The entire group stood up and gathered together for their plan of action, Mark taking charge. Melissa listened to the voice again: she knew who it was but that wouldn't help the group at all.

“Melissa, you stay up here with Marzia while Jack and I go downstairs. Felix, you keep them safe.” Mark pulled a Swiss army knife out of his pocket and Melissa’s eyes widened.

 

“Why didn’t you use that earlier?” Mark smiled.

“I didn’t need it earlier: we made a good team back in Anaheim.” Mark leaned forward and hugged Melissa quickly, doing the same with Marzia, rather cautiously with Felix and Jack, each person whispering goodbye into his ear. Jack didn’t bother: he never had liked goodbyes. Jack gave a salute as he and Mark ran out of the room, hearing the cries get louder and take on a different tone. Melissa felt her eyes tear up and the liquid pooled in the brown spheres.

“There’s more than one person down there, I can tell. There are zombies waiting for them.” Marzia sat with Melissa in the corner while Felix made a stabbing motion, preparing for the time when he may have to use it. Hopefully their companions would come back with some more survivors, every last one of them alive and well. He didn’t want to admit it but now he really did respect Mark. He was willing to give his life for the two women and himself – as well as the other survivors – out of the compassion of his own heart. Melissa heard a scuffle break out downstairs.

 

 _Please be safe…_ As she began to sob Marzia wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“They’ll be fine: their big, strong men like Felix. If they have as much bravery in games as they do real life then everybody will come back.” Another scream sounded out and Felix sat at Melissa’s other shoulder, his arm sitting across her other shoulder and holding onto Marzia’s forearm.

“Don’t worry Melissa, Youtubers don’t take shit from anybody: even zombies.” Melissa smiled as a few more tears rolled down her cheek. The waiting game had begun.

 

 

Out of desperation, I've chosen for you guys - thank me later, all 124 of you


	6. Vanoss Came-In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan and Craig join the crew, but who was injured in the battle against 6 zombies? And how will they get up the stairs?
> 
>  
> 
> (Title rhymes with Vanoss Gaming BTW.)

Melissa couldn’t remember how long she’d been silently praying for. When the trio heard Jack call out to them from downstairs was the biggest relief of their lives.

“We’re okay! It’s safe to come down now guys: we have 2 more people.” Melissa wiped her eyes and the people at her shoulders were smiling.

“See? What did my girlfriend tell you? Nothing to worry about.” Marzia smiled at Felix.

“Okay, no bragging. We need to get down there… it sounds like someone is hurt.” At that moment they all heard a groan and froze as they thought to stand up. Jumping to her feet, Melissa raced to grab the First Aid kit from the coffee table.

“Well, you two have a choice: come with me or wait up here in case we have to bring someone in.” Felix looked at Marzia and she said nothing, waiting for him to give an answer.

“We’ll wait here. You know what you’re doing.”

“Nice to see that somebody around here thinks so.”

 

Melissa smiled with lightly blood-shot eyes and prepared herself to open the door. God knows what kind of state the downstairs area would be in. As she had expected, the new arrivals had come in the only door that hadn’t been blocked up by herself, Marzia and Jack earlier in the afternoon. The barricade against the glass doors of the café’s front entrance was completely intact. However the outermost layer had been torn up and used as weapons which were now embedded within the bodies of 6 zombies. _Six zombies? They took on **six zombies** and only one of the newcomers ended up hurt?_ As she descended the stairs, Melissa saw Jack talking to the **other** American Youtuber she liked besides Mark: Evan Fong. With them was a man she had seen before. _That’s MiniLadd_ … _but his real name is Craig,_ she reminded herself silently. His glasses were small and rectangular and his hair was pale amber, just like her mother’s. God she missed her family. Craig saw her standing with the First Aid kit and smiled.

“Hey, Evan! Looks like we got a nurse.”

 

Before anyone could tell the buff man that she was less than 20, Evan had already begun making a bold statement as he turned around.

“Helloooo nurse!” he almost shouted with confidence. When he came face to face with a gawking teenage girl, Evan’s expression was just like hers.

“Holy shit! I’m so sorry kid, I thought you were older.” Melissa held back the urge to slap Evan and instead made a joke of it.

“Amazingly, you’re not the first person to say so.” Craig looked like he was about to die.

“Well I think the nurse needs to get to Mark right about now.” Melissa’s eyes shot from Evan’s confused face to Craig’s.

“What was that about Mark?” Jack stepped in front of Craig and smiled.

“He’s fine but the zombies had a good go at all of us: Mark’s injuries were worse.” _Jesus I lack consistency in my sentences!_

“What injuries Jack? Did he break an arm, lose a finger, what?” She purged.

“His is like yours,” he said gesturing to her shoulder with his hand. Melissa smiled.

“Well that I can fix. I did a crash course in common knowledge. What about you three?” Evan held up a small gash in his palm, Craig pulled up his jeans to reveal nasty bruising across his shins and Jack was left unscathed. She looked at the injuries and formed ideas in her head, choosing the most sensible cause of action for each.

“Okay, here’s the plan: Jack, stay with me so we can fix up Mark. Evan, you patch up your hand with the antiseptic cream and the other stuff I’m giving you. Then you help Craig upstairs so he can rest his legs once he’s taken some aspirin. Did you all catch that or should I repeat myself?” Evan’s brow furrowed.

“How do you know our names?” Melissa huffed as she sat the First Aid kit on the high counter and opened it up.

 

She pulled out thin cotton sheets and medical tape to cover up Evan’s gash on his hand, two aspirin – both meant for Craig – and bandages for Mark’s shoulder.

“Let’s just say that I’m a fan.” Evan took all of the items he needed and sat with Craig on the stairs as Jack led Melissa to Mark who was lying behind the counter. He was bleeding a little more than she had when her shoulder got his, but his injury wasn’t on his shoulder.

“Good God. Your legs have seen better days Mark.” Mark laughed and his face screwed up when something warm and wet met with his open wound just below his knee.

“Sorry, it’ll hurt because of all that disgusting bacteria the zombies are carrying.” Mark said nothing and endured the feather-light touches of Melissa’s hands as she began to wrap up his leg. She asked Jack to hold onto the bandage while she ran back to grab something, returning with the antiseptic cream.

“Okay, brace yourself and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

 

Mark felt a searing heat on the bloodied legs as the bacteria taking refuge in his wound were cleared out. He imagined it to be something like water clearing plants away in Minecraft.

“Jesus that burns.” Melissa raised her eyebrows as she reminisced about the millions of times she’d had a cut and used this particular form of remedy.

“Tell me about it,” she mumbled sarcastically. Wrapping the bandage tightly around his leg, Melissa helped Mark stand up with Jack’s help. By the time they got to the stairs they could hear Felix talking to Evan and Craig.

“Hey they started without us!” Melissa smiled as she ascended the staircase, looking back down at Jack and Mark, the two men whispering.

“What’s going on down there?” Jack was acting funny and she didn’t like it.

“I’m going up on a certain man’s orders so you have to help him up.” Melissa shooed Jack away and allowed Mark to put an arm over her shoulder and he slowly made his way toward the landing.


	7. Awkiplier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark being Mark and screwing around with people's heads

“Can I ask you a question without sounding weird?” Her mind was ringing alarm bells but she chose to ignore them for now.

“Depends: what question is that?” Mark looked at the floor for a moment and turn on the second to last step, sitting down. When Melissa failed to do the same he patted the wood and she begrudgingly followed.

“Why **haven’t** you kissed somebody yet?” Melissa opened her mouth to say something but a single ‘ha’ came out, followed by ‘um’. When she gave him a proper answer, he didn’t seem impressed.

“I guess nobody can see having a future with a girl who isn’t ‘hot’ or has an odd sense of humour. I’m just too different from other girls really.” In a matter of seconds the alarm bells sounded again in her mind and she had to change the subject.

 

“Why the sudden interest?” Mark leaned in and Melissa backed away.

“What are you doing?” He put out a hand for her to take and Melissa gave him one of hers, returning the gesture. Mark pulled lightly on her arm and brought them closer so that their hips were touching. One of his arms snuck around her back and he hugged her tightly as the other came around. She copied him and they sat that way for a moment, his words warming her heart.

“No matter what happens, remember that someone loves you.” Melissa smiled and let her forehead rest on Mark’s shoulder. When they let go she thought about kissing him on the cheek, pausing to look at him. Realising that he would probably think she was some desperado she decided against it and he noticed. She knew he’d seen her uncertainty and stood quickly, offering her hand so that he could stand up.

 

He was too curious to let her off the hook just yet.

“I’ll get up if you tell me what that hesitation was all about.” Melissa opened her mouth to say something and quickly closed it, thinking through her reply before she gave it. She didn’t do that very often but now she felt like it would become a common practice around so many adults.

“What did you want me to say?” The hint of anger in her voice made him grin.

“You were going to kiss me weren’t you?” She heard a door open and decided to leave someone besides Mark in a state of shock.

“Men are all the same: you can stand up on your own.” Mark put out a hand and called out for her.

“Melissa, come back!” Too late, Jack had heard it all. Even the part about never being kissed – the door had been left open by Evan as he had escorted Craig up, so he’d gone to see if Mark had spoken to Melissa yet.

 

He hadn’t told him what it was but it sounded like it was important. The young woman in question walked past him with bloodshot eyes and he stopped her, one arm dropping like a boom gate. His expression shifted into that of a concerned parent and Melissa hated it. She may be young but there was no discernible reason for everyone to baby her.

“Have you been crying?” Jack closed the door and it went unnoticed by the others, Mark taking the position of the eavesdropper.

“I thought everyone would be dead when I got down here so yes, I cried. Now I think Mark is hitting on me.” Jack saw the disdain in Melissa’s eyes and he frowned.

“It there any other way you could read the situation? Maybe you got the wrong idea or he messed up his words: when I do that it’s funny but when Mark did it things got weird pretty quickly.”

 

Much to his surprise Melissa glanced up at his face and then stared at her shoes.

“I suppose he wants me to be happy and I did make an ass of myself. He asked me a question and I got offended because I knew my answer was yes.” Mark grinned the way his animated counterpart had during a Yandere Simulator mash-up, minus the creepy, open mouth. _I knew it!_ He stood up with the help of the bannisters and jumped over the last two steps, alerting Jack and Melissa to his presence.

“You didn’t hear anything did you?” Mark was fighting the urge to be direct about what they’d said.

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” Melissa looked at Jack and he raised his hands defensively. “You two can sort this shit out on your own time.” He ducked back into the room and shut the door so loudly the zombies downstairs could have woken back up – thankfully they didn’t.

 

She glared at the door and turned to Mark, frozen in place as he limped toward her.

“Well for one it would have led to you trying to kiss me. That’s completely inappropriate considering my age and the conditions we’re living in. On top of that there’s the fact that we’ve only known each other for less than a day. Besides, I planned on kissing you on the cheek. Nothing else.” Mark snorted back a laugh and huffed loudly at her insistent tone.

“God you’re funny.” His expression became a little more serious, but his smile lingered behind.

“I didn’t expect anything else from you. You know damn well that I’m not all perverted and weird – okay well maybe that last part is a lie – but I wouldn’t dare to try and make a move on you unless you wanted me to.” Mark put out a hand and leaned on his injured leg, having found the strength to hold his body up without added support from another person.

 

He did it for a couple more steps but it wasn’t working: he definitely needed somebody to lean on.

“Would you mind giving me a hand?” Melissa gave him a guilty and lightly saddened smile before taking his hand and having his arm drape over her shoulder. As they got to the door she smiled a little more happily and kissed him on the cheek, the sharp hair on his cheek making it hard not to jerk away. She swiped a hand over her lips and grimaced at the feeling of the pinpricks all over them. Mark raised an eyebrow and she shook her head with an open mouth, shocked at how cheeky he was being.

“If you find a laptop and tell everybody that I kissed you you’re gonna get spam e-mails for the next year.” Mark smiled as she opened the door and everybody was dead silent.

“Mark’s got a lot of e-mails to sort through then,” Vanoss joked with a laugh.

 

Mark and Melissa were horrified, their eyes wide and faces paling by the second.

“So what was kissing Mark like?” Jack asked with a big grin. Marzia just shook her head and glanced at her boyfriend whispering to Craig.

“God, yeah, that beard would be pretty rough.” Felix looked at Melissa and she was raising an eyebrow at him.

“Does that mean your speaking from experience?” Felix dropped his mouth wide open and his brow furrowed in disbelief.

“Well no, but Marzia always complained about **my** beard so I thought it’d be the same.” Melissa nodded as if she didn’t believe him and looked over at Craig.

“Craig, I only kissed him on the cheek so don’t get too excited.”

 

She paused and gave them the piece of information they seemed to want the most.

“And yeah, the beard was pretty annoying.” Melissa glanced at Mark and he just wanted to hide his face from everybody’s view so they wouldn’t see him blush. They sat as far apart as possible while Craig began to groan.

“How strong is the pain?” Melissa asked him, hoping to take his mind off of it for a while.

“Not bad: I just have a few cramps in my right shoulder.” Evan leant forward and grabbed his shoulders, attempting to massage them.

“Evan, what the fuck?” Evan shot him a confused look.

“What did I do?”

“Don’t you know that people have nerves?” He said sarcastically.

 

“Right now you’re grabbing my shoulders really tightly and it’s killing them! Why don’t you let Marzia do it? Women’s hands are small and don’t grab shit the way you do.” _Good God, these two should be my new OTP…_ Mark stood up and stared at Craig.

“What is it um… Mark was it?” He nodded seriously.

“You feeling okay? You look a bit pale.” Melissa looked down to Mark’s leg and saw the bandage ooze green the way her shoulder had.

“Mark sit down where you are. Evan, where did you put that kit?” He pointed to Jack who was leaning by the window, staring at all of them.

“Do you need it?”

“Yep. Mark’s leg is getting infected the way my shoulder had.”

 

Despite wanting to be away from Mark and find a way to forget about the kiss, Melissa reluctantly went to his side and slowly pulled the bandage off. When his skin began to pull along with the bandage like skin it would with a band-aid his hand grabbed her wrist fiercely, tears forming in the back of her eyes.

“Sorry, sorry I’m trying to be careful of –” Mark’s eyes looked up at her for a second and she saw something there, but she didn’t know what. His eyes dropped as quickly as they had risen to look at her face, his hand loosening itself. Everybody had seen Melissa jolt and Jack had come back with the first aid kit before anybody had the chance to find out why she did it.

“Here,” Jack said with a sense of urgency.

“Thanks Jack; I’m the idiot who forgot to clean it before wrapping it up.”

 

Melissa let Mark pull his bandage off slowly, the man gritting his teeth to avoid crying or screaming out in agony. When Marzia, Felix, Evan, Craig and jack saw the infection they all felt sick. Green slime was all that they could think of in that moment.

“Jesus Christ: **that** was on your shoulder?” Melissa nodded, turning in Felix’s direction to acknowledge his comment as thoughtfully as she could.

“Mark, I have to use a cloth to wipe it so clamp your hands down on your mouth – this is going to be worse than the antiseptic cream.” Not needing to be told twice, Mark’s hands went over his mouth as a cotton ball came into contact with the infection. Melissa went to work cleaning it up, her free hand gently holding his calf to take his mind off the pain. Had she realised she had subconsciously begun to stroke it she would have stopped.

 

Nobody noticed this except for Craig and he smiled.

“Hey, what about me?” Melissa didn’t turn and Evan slapped his sore shoulder.

“What?!” Evan caught Craig’s eye and he frowned.

“Can’t you see that she’s busy dude?” Melissa had finally finished cleaning the wound and Mark put his hands down, sweat beading across his forehead. He was getting better and worse all at once.

“Well it’s over. We’ve just got to get it all covered up again with a clean bandage so nothing gets into the gash. The last thing you need is an infection that could spread to other people or…” her sentence finished right there. Mark was reluctant to put a second bandage on but agreed in the end for his and every other person’s safety. Melissa stood up and looked out of the window, catching sight of two men running right into a zombie ad cutting it down with crowbars in hand.

 

“Guys, there are two more men outside. Both of ‘em have crowbars and the tallest one of them has a bag. It looks like they’re coming in through the front door.”

 

Last two are coming in very soon XD  


	8. Tired Toby and Peter Dan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toby and Dan have finally joined the crew and sleeping arrangements go on in a newer way than planned since the beds are bigger than first expected.   
> Evan notices that Melissa is upset and decides to strike up a conversation despite their close proximity.
> 
> Pun in the title explained: (Tired Pony because Toby is carrying bags like a horse might carry saddle bags and Peter Pan because Dan barely ever seems to change his appearance in his videos)

Evan voted himself as the welcoming party for the two men and headed downstairs in haste. Knowing their luck Melissa figured that they’d find more Youtubers or more fans… then she remembered.

“Hey Craig, did you see a girl wearing a shirt like mine? Only red and black?” Craig stared at her for a moment as he thought hard about all the people he’d seen in and around the Anaheim Centre – living and dead.

“No, but I saw one of those things holding a piece of red fabric… then some chick in a purple tee and this other guy kicked his – holy shit that was you two?!” Melissa’s brow furrowed.

“Where were you?” Craig looked at the ground for a second and then back up at Melissa.

“Evan and I were in one of the upper levels. We managed to find an axe near a fire extinguisher and cut our way down. While we were up top I saw you and Mark take out the trash!”

 

Melissa grinned despite herself and crossed her arm to show that she was being serious.

“The girl who was wearing that red t-shirt came with me for my birthday. Our mum’s both paid the fare and we had money saved up to use while we were here in America. Being a teenager Hannah figured that I needed someone to watch out for me.” Melissa let her grin drop and Marzia – who had been listening in on the conversation – decided to lighten the mood.

“So when is your birthday?”

“Tomorrow. But I got an early birthday present I suppose.” Melissa let some happiness move back across her features as she mulled over the past few hours: she took out some zombies with Mark, made dinner with Marzia and Sean, annoyed Felix, got hit on accidentally by Evan and Craig teased her for kissing Mark on the cheek – what a story this was gonna be.

 

The highlight of this ‘present’ however, was the next and hopefully last people to come through the door. Evan practically ran back in, smiling so wide half his face seemed to disappear.

“You guys aren’t going to believe this… the guys who just came in have a gun and a pocket knife. I think our luck has turned around.” Melissa was amused and sceptical but everyone else believed him.

“Oh and they have this **epic** Kylo Ren mask that changes your voice: I’m so jealous.” Melissa nodded.

“I’ll agree to that. Are they coming in?” As if answering her question, in strode a tall man with dark brown, messy hair and a black bag from Anaheim. Anybody who’d seen Annoying Orange would immediately recognise him as Toby Turner, but a Youtube fan would see him as Tobsuscus. Melissa however saw him as both, being the nerd that she admittedly was.

 

Behind him came a shorter man with scruffy hair and pale skin, a plush Minecraft Villager in white robes under his arm. The other man was DanTDM.

“Oh God, we’ve got Youtube all-stars in here and…” Toby’s excitement trailed off when his eyes met Melissa’s. He obviously hadn’t expected the others to be here, but apparently she was least expected of all.

“A fan. Best and worst day ever.” Melissa realised that Dan was staring at her and she looked over to him as he stood next to Toby.

“How old are you?” He said with a shiver. _How much older is she going to get before the zombies come in and rip us up?_

“Fifteen and a half. Why do you want to know?”

 

“Just passing time. In case you haven’t noticed most of us are used to technology being around, right Toby?” Toby looked over at Felix and Marzia, his smile making Melissa want to laugh her ass off. She’d seen a picture of Felix with Toby and they were laughing. The caption said something about them looking like brothers and she had to agree.

“Yeah, plus we all know each other somehow.” Melissa decided to be super nerdy and write it all down in her head. _Felix knows Jack and Jack knows Mark. Back to Felix: he knows Evan and Evan knows Craig. Back to Felix **again** : he knows Toby and Toby apparently now knows Dan. Maybe I should find some paper and do like a mind map… yeah that’d be nice._ Melissa watched everybody group off into conversations: Toby, Dan, Felix and Marzia were chatting about what they were doing in Anaheim before the zombies attacked while Jack, Mark and Craig were arguing over which animatronic on FNAF was the scariest. Personally, she thought it was Foxy and Mangle.

 

Evan however, was staring right at her and she hadn’t noticed yet. Her mind had wandered back to Hannah and the way the zombie’s mouth had been full of blood and some unfortunate people’s flesh. Evan was sitting next to her silently and when she looked to her right she jerked back.

“Jesus Christ… Evan do you know anything about personal space?” Felix and Mark both heard and stared at Evan, making sure he was keeping his distance.

“I do but you looked a bit lonely so I thought I’d sit with you. You don’t mind right?” Evan shuffled over toward Felix and the others, his and Mark’s eyes going back to the conversations they were having.

“No. It’s just that things were really tense around here earlier when we discussed…” Melissa looked around the room and leaned over toward Evan. He did the same thing to be sure he understood what it was like before he'd come in with Craig.

 

“… sleeping arrangements. Mark and Felix had a big tiff over something Felix said about it. Mark probably would have used his pocket knife on him if he was cruel enough.” Melissa leaned back and Evan did the same.

“What’s your plan then? I mean, there are 9 of us and two fold-out beds: how can we make that work?” Melissa was obviously not following Evan’s train of thought.

“Why are you asking me?” He smiled.

“Because it’s **you** that everybody would be the most worried about, not themselves. Plus you seem pretty smart.” Melissa nodded proudly with a smile and thought carefully.

“We could turn the lounges around so that when they fold out they’ll be end-to-end and join up in one long bed across the room.” Evan was surprisingly respectful and didn’t burst her bubble.

“We’d all have to squish up and possibly share blankets but I think that’s the least of our worries right now. Zombies are worse than guys I’m sure.” Evan laughed and Melissa had a quick flash of the last few times she’d remembered hearing it; the best one was when Delirious called himself BatCoon and made the group laugh at the inappropriate origins of the names second half. Felix left the room with Marzia and they came back with a huge pile of blankets.

“One each guys. We’ll set up the beds in a minute cause I doubt we’ll get to bed straight away.” Everybody agreed with him silently and picked out a blanket. When Melissa found that only sheets were left, she went to ask Felix for the thin, useless fabric. Evan tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around.

“My blanket is twice the size of the others and I reckon we could tuck it in between us to make sleeping less awkward.” _Yeah right Evan, tell yourself that until she says no._

 

“Are you cool with that or should I leave it?”

Melissa involuntarily shivered and realised that she was frozen solid, almost literally.

“No, that’s fine with me. It gets cold around here at night doesn’t it?” Evan nodded and with a look of almost melancholic proportions, he threw the blanket over her shoulders. Felix and Mark pulled the couch on the left down to the right and made it face the other, pulling out the insert. It went exactly half way across the room. She was just standing there wondering why Evan would be so nice. Was it because he still felt guilty for saying what he did about her earlier?

“Melissa you are a genius! Why didn’t we think of this?” Jack was obviously trying to cheer her up but it hadn't worked as well as he'd hoped. Her smile didn't remain on her face, it just faded away.

“Thanks. I never really noticed.”

 

Her smile was so put on that Jack was tempted to give her a hug. Maybe he should have told her that he hadn’t seen the girl again, but that wouldn’t change much. She could have died in one of the upper levels near Craig and Evan without any of them noticing. Besides, their was no reason to tell her **anything** unless they'd found a body.

“So… who’s next to you?” Melissa looked into Jack’s eyes for a second and found his stare to be a little unnerving.

“Evan: we’re sharing this because it’s so big and we’re so small.” Evan was dragging the other couch into place and called out to her.

“I heard that!” Melissa laughed and stood back as the other half of the makeshift bed was folded out. Though it wasn’t as big as they’d thought, they would definitely all fit on it. One by one they folded up the sheets and made them into pillows, each one looking different to the other.

 

Melissa had rolled hers up and used the cord from Toby’s sneakers to tie it up in the middle, offering the other to Evan. He said they were old and worn (and he had even taken the laces out himself) so obviously he wouldn’t wear them anymore. In the same fashion – one at a time – the group got onto the bed and found a place to sleep. Melissa had chosen the end on the far left, in line with a window. Evan sat on the back of the lounge and asked of he could sleep right at the end in case a spring broke and pierced the mattress. It was a lame excuse but Melissa pretended to buy it and moved over. Someone turned out the light and felt their way over to the bed, kicking their toe in the near-black of the room.

“Ah fuck this for a joke!” Everybody laughed at Jack’s expense and quickly found a position that allowed them to sleep, except for Melissa. Though Evan hadn’t done anything other than what he’d said he would, she felt so vulnerable.

 

He must have noticed her staring out of the window, laid out on her stomach with tears in her eyes. He tapped her on the shoulder and she jolted the mattress, almost waking the person next to her.

“Jesus Evan, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” He smiled.

“No. I just wanted to ask you why you’re crying.”

 

Evan seems to be an outgoing and doesn't seem to have barriers when it comes to what he says in his videos; he also doesn't pass out his trust at any given time. Melissa has the same quality of keeping to herself and saying nothing unless it is going to do something worth starting; possible couple? You tell me


	9. Night Owl Saves The Day Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan proves to be a hero inside and outside of GTA V

Melissa looked over at Evan and realised how close he was to her. The few centimetres between their faces left space between them but Melissa felt that there were definitely not enough of them.

“Sorry, I’m too close aren’t I?” Evan looked behind himself and realised that he had less than an inch of space behind him, but moved back regardless, just so Melissa wouldn’t think he was making a move. He wouldn’t anyway: not when they were all trying to hide form the horrors outside.

“Is it stupid for me to be scared?” Melissa whispered as she turned to face him. Evan just laughed quietly to himself and shook his head.

“No, of course it isn’t! Even I’m scared… I just don’t show it.” Evan’s face shifted as a hand ran its way over his feet and toes.

“Is that you?”

 

Melissa stared at him until the hand made its way to her feet and she shifted uncomfortably. In the interest of safety, Melissa sat up on her elbows and saw the most ridiculous thing in her life: Kylo Ren at the end of her bed. Well, shared bed. This guy had wrapped himself up in a black sheet so that his clothes weren’t visible and the way he crouched down stopped anyone from seeing how tall he was. Had it been Adam Driver himself she would gladly watch him stand up to his full height and drool over him.

“Talking to yourself? I hope you don’t go insane before I have my fun.” Melissa glanced over to Evan and he was staring back at her in anger. The four words he mouthed made her realise that Evan was now the only person she could trust. _I’ll kill the bastard._ Melissa shook her head.

“I won’t because I’ll never let you, sadistic asshole.” The hand on her ankle moved up to her knee and the man stood up a little.

 

_Still not enough to tell me how tall he really is… his arms are long but that’s probably because he’s an adult._

“Would a sadistic asshole use his hands first or would he just dive right in?” Evan pretended to snore loudly and acted groggy – probably the best acting of his imaginary career. _Get him away, scare him away, do something… just get him away from her._ He could feel tears burn his eyes under their lids.

“Hey Melissa, you awake?” The man dropped and Melissa heard him crawl away. He discarded the mask by throwing it across to the other side of the room. It landed perfectly in the bag and that was the last straw for Melissa. As she sat up a loud sob escaped her throat and Evan wrapped his arms around her, sitting his chin gently on the top of her head.

“Hey, it’s okay now.”

 

Much as he wanted to skin the grotesque man that had made a move on Melissa, neither of them could quite figure him out. They had no definite way to find out who it was unless the mask came off or they saw his clothes; even his arms or legs would suffice.

“I…” Evan’s inward thoughts grinded to a halt.

“You what?” He put a hand under her chin and lifted it slowly. He saw her frightened face, felt the tremors in her hands as they pressed between them.

“I don’t know how to thank you.” Evan was smiling like an idiot. _Night Owl for the win!_

“I take hugs and free medical treatment,” he joked. Melissa nodded and wrapped her arms around his torso, realising that he really did have a set of abs. In her state of mind, the fact that they barely knew each other didn’t matter; he was a hero and deserved a reward of some kind.

 

Melissa let Evan go and faced away from him, the older of the two pushing the blankets back down as a sort of barrier. He knew for a fact that the last thing Melissa would want to wake up to was his morning wood pressing into her back.

“You do realise you’re the only person here that I can trust right?” And there was the confirmation: he **had** to make sure he was trustworthy. It wasn’t to say that he planned on doing anything, but she had grown on him quite quickly and she would definitely be considered cute by any sane man’s standards… but she needed to know that he was there for her and that she could trust him. Melissa was shivering and making small chattering sounds with her teeth in the middle of the night, 3 am at her best guess. She hadn’t slept for fear the man would come back… and he had. An arm laid itself out over her abdomen and pulled her tightly to his body, his body hidden behind the – the blanket?

 

Melissa looked down at the hand of Evan pulling the blanket over her and tucking in the excess between them to avoid and friction. If he wanted to avoid awkwardness, this was the best way to do it. He may not be her favourite guy in the group, but somehow he had managed to find a way to warm her body and her heart. They slept in an embrace until morning came. Melissa was woken up by the sunlight and snuck out of the bed, racing to get away from his arm. If they’d all seen Evan with an arm draped over her and his body flush against hers God only knows what they might think had happened… or you’re trying to predict what will happen in the future.

 

4th wall breaks for DAYS!


	10. Who's Bigger?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The men take to doing what they do best and Melissa explains why she has so many good idea's when it comes to survival...  
> plus the guys do what men always do when they have the chance: compare sizes.

Melissa made her way to the kitchen and frowned as she took note of their losses in supplies. The pasta and meat sauce she had cooked with Marzia and Jack had been put in the large fridge; sadly, it hadn’t been sealed properly and now the food was frozen or had freezer burn. What was frozen could be saved, but the rest was rubbish that had to be thrown away. After making a few trips back and forth between the bin outside with a broken chair leg as a weapon, Melissa had gotten rid of the food that couldn’t be eaten and closed the fridge with a hard shove. They had enough food for a week at best, but it would eventually run out. As she turned back and leaned against the fridge, puffing for air, somebody’s face was right in front of hers when she lifted her eyes, giving a surprised yelp.

“Are you okay Melissa?” Jack asked with a furrowed brow.

“I’m fine,” she huffed, “just getting rid of the food in here that had gone bad. Some ass didn’t close up the fridge… probably me.”

 

Jack laughed despite the seriousness of the issue and took a quick peek inside. As Melissa already knew, it wouldn’t last long: half of the food they had was inedible and there were more mouths to feed.

“We’re in for a shit day,” Jack said a little glumly as he slammed the large fridge shut.

“No kidding,” Melissa said with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

Jack glanced at the fridge behind him and decided to keep them on the subject of food. If she was given any time she’d start thinking about her friend and become a crying mess. It’s not that he didn’t want her to cry, he just hated to see people cry.

“So… what do you say we gather a group of the boys and scout for a Wal-Mart or other survivors?” he suggested.

Melissa nodded slowly, looking at the floor with some kind of optimism.

“That isn’t a bad idea,” she said with a hint of worry, “but what if one of those zombie bastards runs in and we have one person here? This place would be swarming with them and whoever is left would have zero chance of survival; if we go somewhere then everybody goes.”

 

“Making battle plans without us?” Craig joked, trotting down the stairs as quietly as he could.

“No, just talking about our predicament which is absolute bullshit if you ask me,” Jack said with an extremity of sarcasm.

If Melissa had the energy or the bravery, she would have laughed. _One of them could be him_ she reminded herself _. One of them could be the man in the bed last night running his hands over me. It wasn’t Evan, I know that. Good God, if only I could cross someone out!_ Jack saw Melissa stuck deep in thought and tapped her on the shoulder, her hand slapping him away like a lightning-fast reflex. Craig looked at Jack and shook his head. Jack glanced at Craig and then shook the hand Melissa had whacked.

“Sorry, not thinking too much these days,” he jibed, “didn’t realise I scared people **that** much.”

Melissa smiled.

“You don’t,” she answered honestly, “you just touched my bandaged shoulder and I don’t want that getting knocked too hard, otherwise it’ll start bleeding again.”

 

Jack didn’t know it was a lie, but Craig had his suspicions.

“Really?” he said with slightly squinted eyes, “well then, how would you know that knocking the shoulder would make it bleed?”

“It’s common sense Craig,” Melissa retorted.

“Is it now?” he threatened.

“Yes it is; in fact I could demonstrate my point by punching my injured shoulder if you’d like me to?”

Craig gave a look of disgust and disbelief rolled into one, making Jack feel uncomfortable.

“Holy shit, what’s eating you?” he said, not meaning to make a pun.

“The zombies you asshole!” Melissa shouted before looking out of the stores front window; no bars and nothing to keep out the flesh-eating monsters that had become the stark reality of her existence. Melissa calmed herself and picked up a small table, Jack quickly taking it as a command to cover up the holes left by the brawl they’d had the previous night.

 

Craig made himself the official body-mover and carelessly hauled the bodies outside to a dumpster, completely aware that they could reanimate at any moment and kill him.

“So um… can I ask you something Melissa” Craig ventured, “about all these ideas you have? We’re you in that Scouts thing they have in Australia?”

Melissa shook her head and looked up from a chair she was wedging next to another, Jack over the opposite side doing the same with a coffee table.

“If I told you you’d either laugh or cry; I didn’t want either of those things to happen,” she answered honestly.

“Oh come on it can’t be that bad!” Felix called out as if one cue.

A few of the men started chanting ‘tell us’ and Melissa gave in.

“Okay fine!” she said in frustration, “just stop saying that.”

The men quietened down and stood around her with excitement on their faces.

 

“I’m not trying to brag… but I have an IQ of one forty-three,” Melissa said, squinting as if one of them was going to slap her. Instead their mouths were hanging open.

“What does that make you?” Mark said in a high-pitched voice.

“It means that I’m highly gifted and approaching the genius end of the scale,” Melissa beamed despite hearing a knock.

When she heard it again her neck snapped to look back at the staircase, the chair finally in the position she needed it.

“Are you okay Marzia?” Felix called out to her from the bottom of the stairs. He held on to a bannister and leaned to one side, the group following his odd movement and his eyes. Everyone except for Melissa that was. Instead she went up the stairs and saw Marzia with pale skin and her hands felt a little sweaty.

“You threw up, didn’t you?” she whispered to Marzia, acting as though she was having a regular conversation to avoid the men’s suspicion.

 

Marzia nodded and Melissa smiled.

“I’ll bring you a couple of slices of lemon; the acid from the tomatoes in the sauce from dinner are upsetting the bun in the oven,” she said sneakily.

Marzia smiled.

“So you’re a genius?” she smiled, despite the queasy feeling hanging over her like a thick fog.

“Yeah… and we all have to go searching for supplies later on,” Melissa declared , “and the gentlemen downstairs are still trying to get over it.”

Marzia laughed and went back into the shared room, slipping under a blanket she had shared with Felix. Melissa meanwhile had gone back down to find boys being boys and comparing size…

the size of their IQ’s.


	11. Evan May Be Small (But Not Everything About Him Is)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The men venture out into the streets a whole day after escaping Anaheim with their lives; what will melissa find that could lead her to other survivors, or even her best friend?

Melissa went to the group of men and stood in between Mark and Jack, who were definitely arguing over who was smarter.

“There’s only one way to know who’s smarter of all of you, so shut up and answer the question: if a man who is divorced has two sons and his ex-wife has two daughters, how many children are there in his family? I want one answer each.”

Evan said nothing and waited for everybody else answer while he thought.

Mark, Jack, Felix, Toby, Dan and Craig all decided on four.

“Alright Evan, want to tell them what the real answer is since you seem to know it?” Melissa grinned.

Evan returned a simple and said quite simply “Two; the man’s wife isn’t part of the family so only the two sons count.”

Jack was staring at Evan as he leaned down and around his torso to whisper in Melissa’s ear “I think your intelligence rubbed off on me last night.”

 

“Keep dreaming Mister,” she said back, quickly addressing the rest of the group.

“So what’s the new game plan since we all know my big secret? Leave me as ‘leader’ or whatever I am or pick someone else? I don’t think Marzia is in any condition to leave but we could have someone stay behind with her.”

Felix nodded and looked at Jack who looked a little pale. Everybody seemed to forget that he could read lips, though not amazingly well. Toby, Dan, Mark and Craig got closer to Evan and Melissa to hear better, which seemed to calm him a little.

“Hey Jack,” Felix said with concern in his mind, “you okay? You look like shit right now... something wrong?”

He nodded once while Melissa fleshed out her idea about going out in small groups to avoid being ganged up on by zombies.

“Did you hear what Evan said to Melissa? How could intelligence have rubbed off on her unless they got cosy?”

 

“Or maybe he’s just being protective of her? Seriously, Jack you need to chill. If you’re so worried about it,” Felix said almost sarcastically, “then just ask her yourself.”

With the decisions made, Melissa sat an elbow in her hand and leant on it as she thought. _Well I know Mark and Evan are strong; I have the smarts for sure. I have no idea what Dan knows, Toby seems like he has brawn and Felix should stay back with Marzia. God knows Craig has a few tricks up his sleeve... okay, I’ve got it!_

“I say we have three groups: the first is Mark, Craig and Dan. The other is what we have left except Felix and Marzia. She doesn’t look like she can go anywhere and I’m not letting her stay here alone,” Melissa said with certainty.

“Felix, you take the gun and keep it here in case there’s a surprise attack. The rest of us will have to do some MacGyver-style handiwork and make our own weapons.”

“What about the plan you made about ten minutes ago?” Jack said with a suspicious tone to his voice.

 

“It wasn’t thought out and this one seems safer,” she retorted calmly, “especially if Marzia gets worse; but in saying that it’s probably just a passing illness. Either way she needs to lay low. If she’s ill the zombies might catch onto her scent, especially if she coughs.”

“Her scent?” Mark said in exasperation

“Those are people, not dogs.”

“Then how did they know to come into the cafe yesterday?” Melissa said with anger lingering in her mind.

“They didn’t follow the light or else they would have gotten here earlier. It had to be them smelling our food or dead bodies.”

Mark huffed through his nose and looked away as if he was ashamed.

“Sorry, tensions killing me,” he offered.

“Well if we stick to this plan then it won’t be a zombie,” she joked.

For a full half hour Melissa and the men (excluding Felix who had gone upstairs to Marzia) went through the cafe for a second – or was it third? – time to find weapons.

 

Counting them as the luckiest people alive, Melissa scrounged up a large knife and took to making spear-like weapons out of the few legs of chairs left – ten in total. Melissa took two, along with Toby and Mark; as the stronger fighters they seemed to be the most likely to be able to handle two weapons. As if making it a ritual, each group member shook hands in case they did not return. The first group to leave was the smaller, more awkward one; Mark, Craig and Dan.

“Good luck,” Melissa said as they walked off to the right, further away from Anaheim.

Melissa, Jack, Evan and Toby made their way toward Anaheim and immediately ran into three zombies. To Jack and Melissa’s surprise Toby took out the first two on his own while Evan owned the third.

“You two should have stayed at home,” Toby jibed as he removed his chair-leg spear from a zombie’s throat.

“Thanks,” Jack said sarcastically, “feel so fucking useful to humanity.”

“And I just feel like a useless female,” Melissa added with an equal level of disappointment.

 

Evan shook his head and Jack watched him sit a hand on her shoulder.

“If you’re useless,” he said as he stared into her hazel eyes, “why are we all still alive?”

Toby interrupted them by pointing out that there was a shopping mall at least one hundred metres from the Anaheim Centre. The Centre in turn was another two hundred metres away at the least.

“I could use a good walk,” Jack said as they headed on the direction.

He noticed how chummy Evan seemed to be with Melissa and he decided that if Evan did anything to upset her he’d be the first to drive a mighty Irish fist up his –

“Hey Jack,” Melissa said as she interrupted his train of thought, “is everything okay? You look like you want to stab me.”

“No,” he lied, “no stabbing except zombies. I’m just thinking about who might have started this shit.”

“Whoever they were Jack, we don’t want to meet them,” Melissa sad with a very flat, worried tone.

After a full two hours of searching the mall and trying to find supplies, they had only managed to find a few shirts, half-decent pants (among other personal items of clothing) and a few cans of soup.

 

It seemed that they weren’t the only ones who were survivors if the supplies were almost gone. In the mall they could see dead men women and even one teenager who was holding something in her hand. Hannah’s phone. Carefully monitoring the child, Melissa attempted to pry the phone from the boy’s hand. As soon as Melissa met with resistance from the hand, she knew she had to be ready for a fight. The boys suddenly jumped at her and growled, pinning her to the floor and a wooden shaft went straight through his stomach. He yowled in pain and Melissa closed her eyes as she thrust the second – which had been sitting a few centimetres from her other free hand – through his eye socket and into his brain. She threw the body off of her and realised now that the piercing scream she had heard was her own. A strange flood of nausea hit her like a brick wall as if she’d been running at one. Her breathing was erratic and she snatched the phone from the boy’s hands, turning it on to see a picture. It was of her and Hannah in a shopping centre back in Australia. They had just been shopping to lay-by formal dresses when they reached Year 12 and had taken a selfie in them to show their mothers. It was the last photo they had taken together before they came to California.

 

“She’s still alive...” Melissa whispered as she stared at the zombie.

“... and I murdered him to get the phone.”

Melissa stood and ran to the front of the mall, not realising that Evan was standing behind the doors. As she walked out he moved in front of her and she screamed. A hand flew to her mouth when she saw Evan’s face; it was dropping into shock and worry.

“Holy shit! What happened to you Mel?” he asked quickly.

“You’re covered in blood!”

Melissa moved her hand away from her mouth and looked down, feeling more than dizzy.

“I saw a guy with my friend’s phone and he wasn’t dead,” she said as her eyes dropped to her feet, “and then when I grabbed it he almost got me.”

Melissa’s vision became blurry and she stumbled a whole metre before falling to the ground. She thought she was dead. Her death was going to be caused by fainting at the sight of blood on her own body. When she woke up she was beyond shocked words.


	12. Kiss Your Companions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melssa wakes up and finds her injured shoulder bleeding, as well ac receiving some important information about her possible attacker from Jack, who reveals personal observations about one of the other men in the group.

Standing over Melissa was her motley crew of Youtubers, along with a strange (and very tall) ginger haired man who had to have been in his forties. All the groups had managed to move her motionless body to the outside of the café and wait for her to wake up. In that time however, Dan and Toby had managed to knock into her five times, leaving a set of bruises over her ribs as they fought off zombies. She noticed it as she sat up and Dan just looked away, turning his eyes to Toby. He mouthed the words _I won’t tell if you won’t_.

“What happened to you Melissa?” Craig said as Jack put out a hand to help her up.

Melissa pointed at Evan as she began to explain the events that lead to her falling onto the floor. She was beginning to wonder if this was God’s way of saying she would fall in battle.

“NightOwl over here was hiding in the shadows and scared the crap out of me,” she said with a hint of a smile as she put weight on Jack’s arm and stood, almost falling onto Mark.

 

“Shit,” Mark said as a hand went to her shoulder to stop her from landing on him, “You look like all hell broke loose. How did you get all bloodied?”

“Go back to that shopping centre by the second bench and find a pile of bodies,” she said as she swung her head in the direction of the doors, “the guy with a stick in his stomach and his eye is the one I took out. That’s where all the blood came from... but why are my ribs aching?”

Toby immediately nudged Dan.

“Dan did it, not me,” he blurted out.

“That a load of crap Toby and you know it,” Dan said in return.

Melissa shifted her shoulder and made a pained expression. The infected shoulder felt wet. Felix walked out and the smile he had on his face dropped.

 

Much as he enjoyed seeing the men come back with Melissa, the fact that her shoulder was bleeding worried him beyond belief.

“Get her inside; those bastards can smell blood,” he said as Jack grabbed tightly onto Melissa’s hand and made sure she got up the stairs without passing out. Marzia practically ran Melissa to the bathroom with the First Aid kit and made the younger woman remove her shirt. Much to Melissa’s chagrin, the bandage she was slowly pulling away had been glued to her skin via the antiseptic cream. Marzia watched - without a single crinkling of her mouth or forehead – as Melissa removed the bandage, taking tiny bits of skin with it. Each movement of Melissa’s hand sent a pang of searing pain through her shoulder. After a while the bandage was dropped to the floor and Marzia picked it up, holding it out to a person outside the door.

 

After they took it, Melissa and Marzia laughed when they heard Dan say “Don’t bring it near me. Give it to Toby... he’s a man!”

The other men were laughing and asking Dan if he had ever learnt about the birds and the bees, to which he gave a definite yes. Marzia put on a small amount of antiseptic cream while Melissa dug her teeth into a pointer finger, leaving behind teeth marks.

“Thanks Marzia,” Melissa said as she gave the older woman a hug.

Marzia returned the gesture but gave a small gasp, pushing Melissa back.

“I didn’t hug you that...” Melissa’s words trailed off when she realised that the baby had kicked.

She smiled and told Marzia that she would pack the equiptment away.

“Don’t you want to bandage your shoulder?”

“No,” Melissa said firmly but kindly, “that’ll only leave me with less flesh to heal over wound. You need to tell Felix when we go out there. They went dead silent and I’m sure they could use a bit of good news.”

Marzia smiled, nodded and opened the door as Melissa rolled her sleeve into a roll at the top of her shoulder. When the men saw her, Dan seemed as though he was going to throw up.

 

That Night...

 

Melissa had helped cook dinner with Evan and Craig (who claimed that women were the best cooks). Mark had carefully cut the sleeve off of Melissa’s top on her injured shoulder so that she didn’t have to worry about it sticking. The men had all shaved and Melissa had to admit that they all looked better that way. That night she planned to sit a piece of plastic bag on it to avoid the sticky situation. To her surprise, it was far less painful and even cooled down the heat the infection had left under her skin.

 

The men hadn’t told Melissa about their new flatmate, but he seemed content sleeping in the bathroom with cushions from the lounge as his mattress and a sheet as his only source of warmth. Evan was like a personal heater and he had rebuilt the blanket barrier he insisted would prevent any ‘awkward situations’. Considering that she was single and there was some kind of stalker out there waiting for her in that very room, it was a comfort that Evan cared about her personal space. Late in the night Melissa saw a short figure standing at the edge of the lounge-bed. He had a mop of hair topped by a distinct shade of green and she lunged at him, only to have Evan hold her back.

“What is it?” he said as he followed Melissa’s eyes.

“Bastard,” Evan whispered under his breath.

Jack motioned for Melissa and Evan to come over to him and they left the warmth of the lounge-bed grudgingly. That blanket was like heaven compared to the night air. For a moment Evan looked as though he was going to punch Jack, but when his fist clenched up she put a hand on his back. Melissa hid it from Jack by stepping closer to Evan almost pushing against his hip.

 

“Why do you want to talk to us?” Melissa said almost innocently.

“I wanted to ask you what kind of relationship the two of you have,” Jack answered, “Evan if you do anything I swear to God you’re gonna regret it!”

“He’s the only guy here I can trust,” Melissa said as she locked eyes with Jack, his anger slowly dissipating.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It **means** that somebody already realised that I’m the only available woman here and got too comfortable with my legs and their language,” Melissa blurted with a steely gaze.

“They used that God-awful Kylo Ren mask to hide their voice and their face. The worst part is that I believed you were going to admit it was you and you have such a genuine expression I wouldn’t suspect it. So was it you?”

There was a long pause as Evan stepped closer and whispered something into Jack’s ear.

 

 

“Evan,” Melissa said a little loudly, “cut it out. You’re not my boyfriend so stop acting like a hero for five minutes!”

Jack responded with a glum nod.

“He wasn’t threatening me Melissa; he was just asking if I had dirt on anybody,” Jack beamed.

“I’m kinda tired, so could we sit down?”

Melissa shrugged and Evan plopped down onto the floor beside her, dragging a blanket down for them all to share.

“So,” Melissa said in an expectant tone, “anybody seem particularly unstable in your opinion?”

The one name that passed his lips made Melissa feel almost sick: “Mark.”

“But why Mark? Isn’t being unpredictable and unstable part of his persona on Youtube? I mean... he is pretty hyperactive for a guy in his twenties.”

Jack nodded and his face took on a serious expression that Melissa hoped no fan would ever have to see in their lives.

 

It was like Jack had become morose and his happy, bubbly self had died.

“Have you seen any of his videos from 2013? Late in the year?” he asked Melissa (who was now squashed in between himself and Evan).

He looked to Evan who shook his head, but Melissa had nodded.

“Which one?” she said after an eerie silence.

“The one where cubes fall out of the sky and he has to get the pills,” Jack replied.

“Seems like a fitting subject – some mad man playing a game where he **is** a mad man. So... what of it?” she said jokingly.

“Well toward the end of that video the game glitches and Mark just doesn’t seem himself. He complained about his head hurting, not wanting to worry about the computer and then says that he loves his fans. The last two wouldn’t have worried me so much if it weren’t for him saying he was tired and heading off to take a nap right before he perked up. It was like he’d been given a caffeine hit. He got so happy when...”

 

Evan listened intently as Jack drew a breath in and nearly sighed.

“If you’re a big enough fan I’d say you know the last things he says on the video and I want you to say it out aloud.” Jack then added

“He needs to hear it too.”

Melissa felt her heart sink into the floor. Mark was the one who had saved her and helped her, not hurt her. It couldn’t be Mark and she would find out one way or another.

“He said... ‘And remember what Uncle Markiplier says; ‘f’ you in the ‘a’ and have a nice day!’”

“And how cheery was it compared to everything else he said?” Evan asked them with both severity and curiosity.

Melissa returned the answer with a cunning expression she hoped would break the tension between the three of them.

“He went from Funeral to Wedding in a split second.”

 

With these words Jack bid the pair goodnight and promised not to give away the fact that he knew about the man in the mask. He moved back to his place in the long bed and had to physically move Felix closer to Marzia so he could get in – the bastard had spread himself out and was the heaviest sleeper he’d ever seen. Apparently the others didn’t move around (on the opposite end of the bed) in their sleep while they were gone. This small miracle allowed Evan and Melissa to not only get into the bed, but fall asleep in peace. However, nothing could be said for it staying that way. In the night Melissa rolled onto her back and felt an arm lay across her stomach; it belonged to Evan who was fast asleep. She moved his arm and brought her own out from under the blankets, a sinking feeling at her feet sending a pang of fear through her body. In a flash she had pushed her upper body into an upright position in time to see the man in the mask kneeling in between her knees.

“Stay away from me, creep!” Melissa spat quietly into the night air.

  The man pushed her back slowly, grabbing her shoulder hard as his arm held her down.

“Close your eyes or you’ll regret it,” came the deep, mechanical voice, “wouldn’t want to wake Evan would you? Let him see how much you’re going to like this?”

 

“So that’s all you want; a one night stand?” Melissa asked as he got close to her face, letting her see the fear on her own face in the long black visor.

He was now clutching onto her wrists, keeping Melissa pinned down. She knew better than to try and kick. One nudge is all it takes to get him that bit too excited before he can’t help himself.

“Could’ve just dated your own right hand for an hour in an abandoned building and saved yourself the trouble... Mark.”

“You dare guess?” the man teased, “and of all people you choose the one person who is always kind and caring? Everyone has mood swings sweetheart and I for one doubt Mark would be willing to go this far.”

“You could say that to avoid suspicion,” Melissa retorted.

“I’m going to kiss you Melissa,” he said as a hand went to the mask, “and you are going to put your hands behind your back. Wouldn’t want to blow my cover now, would I?”

 

“Too bad you’ve already blown your own horn,” Melissa said under her breath as she felt the man’s hands release her wrists. They had actually begun to ache he was gripping them so tightly. _Follow orders... that’s how you keep your head_. Melissa quickly tucked her hands behind her back, her arms bent almost as far as they could. The fact that the man was covering her eyes only made this seem worse than it was. All he wanted was a kiss and didn’t seem to be in the mood for a romp in the same bed as 7 other people. Melissa was waiting for a fierce kiss – a mark on her body that could not be proven as belonging to one person – but she got something far worse. Before he had even thought of kissing her, the man yanked one torn sleeve up down over her uninjured shoulder and sucked hard at a spot of skin between her neck and her shoulder. The place he chose to leave it was thankfully covered up by the t-shirt and she didn’t have to worry about Evan taking the fall for it. All Melissa could do to stifle her scream was make pained faces and clench her teeth so hard that anybody who had witnessed the act would think that they’d shatter under the immense pressure.

 

The man sat up on his arm for a moment and then forced a demanding kiss onto Melissa as if he were a hungry wolf seeking nothing but a way to satisfy a primal, animalistic hunger. The man leant back and felt a tear leave Melissa’s eye as his lips left hers. He put the mask back on to speak.

“Shhhh,” he said soothingly as Melissa began to breathe a little too shallow for his liking, “it’ll be okay as long as you give in to me.”

The next kiss was rough, but not as bruising as the first. Melissa caught on to an idea so outrageous that it might actually scare him away. The man had decided to try a kiss one last time and she finally let her instincts kick in, her tongue moving into the other man’s mouth as if she actually wanted to enjoy it. If he got his fantasy then he might not come back ever again. Melissa kept her eyes closed and focused on what she could feel, almost letting her mind go blank as she pashed the stranger next to Evan. He finally pulled back with small traces of breathlessness, a ripping sound making Melissa want to cry. _Don’t tell me he just ripped of my top_!

 

 

He hadn’t. The man replaced the mask with one hand and spoke through it, hiding his identity from her once again.

“Put this over your eyes until I’m in the bed,” the voice said as it got closer to her ear, “or you’ll be doing more than cry tomorrow night.”

Melissa was frozen as the fabric of some description was dropped into her hands. She sat up and tied it around her head, listening to the man’s footsteps as he walked away. As Melissa felt a small shift to her left – likely her nightly visitor moving the bed so that she knew he was in, she waited for a sound. When the mask crashed into the bag and she heard the sheet being flung across the room, she sat up and ripped the blindfold off of her eyes. She looked along the row of men and women, disappointed by the lack of movement. Melissa saw Mark roll over to face her and felt in her heart that she could never believe it was him. She was practically refusing it, trying outright to hold on to the videos she’d been watching since 2013. When she rolled over and stared at Evan, she had a gut feeling that he was awake. When Evan opened one eye and watched Melissa shift closer to him, he had his own gut feeling; that she wouldn’t want to talk about the kiss.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiss Your Companion is a reference to a series of short games called "Whack Your -------", most of which have been played by Markiplier. This is included as Mark was a main focus of this chapter.
> 
> Please leave me a comment as I am desperate to see what the community think of this real-life inspired fanfiction :)


	13. He Started It!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newest member of the group - Alex Greene - tells everybody what they needed to hear the most; the reason there are zombies invading America. Sadly, one of our favourites disappears at a most inconvenient time...

Melissa had closed her eyes and was slowly but surely falling asleep. When a hand grabbed onto her shoulder however, she was certain that she’d almost screamed. Her eyes flew open and she saw Evan staring at her.

“I heard what he told you,” Evan said, “And if he knew we’d found out about him then he’ll make all this look like my fault. Was that a stupid idea?”

Melissa nodded without a smile.

“You could’ve woken everyone up douchebag!” she said angrily.

Melissa sighed and guessed that a high IQ came at a price. Apparently the price was intelligent company. Then again, she was just being cruel; Evan was thinking about his safety too: there was a loaded gun in this room somewhere as well as a pocket knife... it was just logical to listen in and make sure that nothing worse than a kiss went on behind him. His plan **was** smart to a degree and her anger dissipated quickly.

 

“Well I guess I can’t be too mad at you; you did what you thought was best,” she said as they made eye contact, “Now that you’re all clean-shaven finding this guy is like looking for a glass needle in a haystack,” she said sarcastically as a thought crossed her mind.

“You ever heard Mark say the word ‘room’?” Melissa asked Evan excitedly.

“Look who’s gone from Funeral to Wedding now!” he said with an awkward smile.

“But no, I haven’t. Why?”

“He has some kind of issue pronouncing it and says it as ‘rum’,” Melissa answered, Evan stifling a laugh at her impression of Mark.

“Now I know how to find out if it really is Mark, but I need to get the guts to say it.”

Further along in the bed, someone heard snippets of their conversation and fell asleep with a grin. _I don’t believe it. Those two love-sick puppies are going about everything the wrong way... at this rate they’ll never catch me..._

 

The Next Morning

 

Melissa had a relatively peaceful sleep and was once again awake well before the rest of the group. Their guest was very quiet and ate breakfast with them. His ginger hair was glimmering in the sunlight and she had to admit that he wasn’t the ugliest fellow she’d ever seen. His blue eyes came as quite a surprise, as they weren’t just any ordinary blue; it seemed as though someone had put electric blue and black paint together on a palette and filled in his eyes. Her own were a hazel, green and brown in an odd mix that belonged to 5% of the world. His were probably one in a million. When the stranger caught sight of Melissa staring at him, he smiled and she barely kept a straight face.

“So what’s your name?” Melisa said when she found the mental strength to get over the fact that he was now staring back at her.

 

“I’m Melissa Brown.”

The man put out a hand and she shook it, noticing small cuts and burns across his hands and arms.

“Alex Greene,” the man replied, “Geneticist by trade. According to your um... friends ‘round here, your something special.”

Melissa was surprised to hear an accent almost the same as her own and took no shame in thinking _Thank God! Someone I can relate to..._

“With eyes like that shouldn’t I be saying the same thing about you?” she blurted out.

Alex laughed and Evan smiled. He wasn’t prepared to be a jealous person and treat Melissa like he owned her. Alex pressed a finger to his eye and slowly moved it away, taking out his blue contact lens. Melissa’s awkward smile morphed into something reminiscent of fear when she saw grey irises and red-pink sclera staring back at her.

“What **could** you say?” he asked rhetorically.

 

Melissa watched Alex carefully put the contact lenses back in, silently wishing he’d never take them out again unless he really had to. It was at this moment that she noticed the sheer size of the contact lens – it covered his entire eye.

“Besides, I’m the one who started this crap for humanity,” he said with an incredulous look on his face.

“I’ll go down in history as the ass that started the Zombie Apocalypse.”

“Would you be able to explain how it happens? I can take it,” Melissa said hopefully.

Alex nodded and stared at the floor for a moment.      

“Long story short: the Y chromosome in male genes is causing insatiable hunger.”

“How could you possibly screw up that badly?”

“It was supposed to be tested on women,” Alex explained, “but the only person with me was my lab assistant and a janitor.”

 

“I chose the janitor and promised him a hundred bucks for his contribution to science. The poor lab assistant was alone with him when he became one of those man-zombies and ripped him apart. I locked as many doors as I could and escaped with my life. Somehow he must have gotten out and it spread all the way from Arizona.”

“So they’re... manbies?” Dan asked Alex.

His only reply was a lopsided grin and a sigh.

“I was trying to find a way to give humans an extended life without causing a ruckus with politicians or the President,” Alex admitted, “so I decided to do it in an older lab. I knew those damn doors wouldn’t hold and I left that asshole there. If I had stayed and shot him you wouldn’t all be in so much danger, especially you kid.”

Realising that Alex was referring to her, Melissa brought her mind back into the present. 

“Okay... but why only men?” Melissa said, certain of herself.

 

“Can’t they override female DNA as well?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Alex sighed in defeat and smiled at Melissa.

“You don’t give up, do you?”

Melissa shook her head.

“Not really. Is it something to do with the chromosome?”

No sooner than the question left her mouth, Melissa figured it out.

“Oh, I’ve got it!” she exclaimed, “the Y chromosome has to be present in the victim for the transformation to be able to take over the bodies remaining half of DNA. That means all the women here are immune.”

Alex and half the people in the room had their mouths hanging open. The rest were just stunned into a contemplative silence.

“We all look like 5 years olds,” Toby said jokingly.

 

He didn’t get a single laugh.

“You tried. It’s a tough crowd so... the zombies will be chewing for a while.”

Craig made a horrible sound (which he would later claim was a laugh) and the rest of the room followed. Melissa was smirking and she caught Mark’s eye, her smile disappearing almost completely. She looked away quickly and saw Evan having a crack at Craig about his laughing. Perhaps she was seeing things from the wrong perspective to truly understand why Mark was a suspect; being unstable was one thing, but being a rapist was something completely different. _Innocent until proven guilty... that goes for everyone. Evan is definitely ‘innocent’ if he had to make a no-hard-ons-allowed barrier between us at night._ While deep in thought about a range of matters (from something as small as a laugh right through to their nightly activities involving Melissa), everybody in the room heard a scream – a very feminine scream. The group went silent and one man’s mouth dropped open in horror.

 

“Marzia!” Felix screamed as he ran to the door.

Melissa and the others weren’t far behind. They were all racing down the stairs and rushing to the back door of the cafe, the group flooding out of the door. Felix was the first to see the scene and there were no words to describe the cries and sobs that escaped his lips – Melissa was wide-eyed and everybody else had fallen silent. There was a trail of blood leading from a small pool by Felix’ feet and it’s smell was more than repulsive. Green gunk was slowly moving toward the blood from a nearby zombie had been sliced into ribbons. He had been feasting on the dead woman’s body that Craig had disposed of when something – or someone – attacked him. Melissa noticed something mixed in with the blood and felt her heart fall through her feet. _Marzia’s water broke... but something killed the zombie before it could kill her_. Melissa could see that the trail led off down the street behind the cafe and silently thanked the stranger in her head. The only thing she worried about now was the fact that someone had left a dead body out here only to attract a zombie hoard.

 

“Our only choice is to go looking for her once we’ve grouped up – any suggestions?” Melissa said as she scanned the men with her own critical stare. Craig walked over to Felix as he began crying into his hands and gave him a hug, whispering something to him that nobody could hear. Felix looked at Craig and he suddenly flew into a rage.

“You asshole!” Felix screamed “my girlfriend could be dead because of you!”

“Felix,” Melissa half shouted as she crouched down next to him, “since when could Marzia teleport herself away from danger? There’s a trail of blood that stops a couple of feet away which tells us that somebody took her away. They must have assumed she was alone and taken her back to some sort of hideout. All we have to do is find the other group.”

Felix swiped at his eyes with a sleeve and accepted the hand that Melissa had put out. She rubbed his back to comfort him and – to her surprise – he was a hugger. Melissa put her arms up over his neck and returned the gesture as Felix let a few stray tears stain her tattered t-shirt.


	14. Love Byte

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa has her shoulder patched up with Evan's help and her mystery man literally leaves his mark...

Melissa watched Craig and Evan move the woman’s body into a dumpster while she escorted Felix upstairs with Evan, Mark, Toby, Jack and Dan to recuperate. The men (excluding Evan) were all sitting with Felix and talking to him to keep him calm under Melissa’s watchful eye. While she had her reservations about being alone with anybody from the group, she had to ask Evan to go into the bathroom with her to clean her shoulder. Apparently her immune system was healing up the wound, as a strange pink colour had enveloped the skin immediately surrounding the gash. Evan was smiling at Melissa when he heard small gasps of pain.

“You’re pretty tough for a teenage girl you know,” he complimented her as she placed a thin piece of plastic over her shoulder.

“What makes you say that?” Melissa asked almost immediately.

 

“Are you kidding me? You’re hundreds of miles away from home, you’ve been attacked by a zombie **and** you’ve managed to only cry twice. You’ve probably got bigger balls than some of us guys.”

Melissa smiled and gave him an equally positive reply.

“Well,” she began, “I’m also very lucky. I got to befriend some of the funniest YouTubers, I’ve been sleeping next to one and he’s pretty cute too.”

Melissa winked and Evan was speechless. Well... almost.

“What was that?” he said in amazement.

“I’m not about to let some perv get me down; for now he’s a threat but I doubt he has a reason to go through with anything,” Melissa said in a hushed tone, “I say we let his antics slide until he does something other than ask for a kiss; I can deal with that for now. It sounds stupid but I need you to trust me on this – it **was** originally your idea.”

 

Evan seemed to disagree but nodded, trusting Melissa’s judgement despite his personal feelings; she was smart enough to know when she needed help and so was he.

“Can I ask you something Melissa?” Evan said as she opened the door.

“Shoot,” she said with a smile, her hand sitting on the silver handle.    

“Is it at all possible that this ‘cute’ Youtuber can get a hug?”

“No, never,” Melissa said sarcastically.

No sooner than her hand left the handle, Evan had thrown his arms around her midriff.

“I won’t let that ass hurt you... you know that right?” Evan whispered into Melissa’s ear.

Melissa brought her arms up under Evans, her inner elbows hooking around his armpits. She sat her head on his shoulder and let herself relax - a luxury they had little time to enjoy.

“I do,” she said in return.

 

That Night...  

 

Alex had announced to everybody that he would sleep downstairs before they all went off to bed. This was supposedly because he would be up late trying to find a way to prevent others from becoming zombies or create a cure. Nobody complained but Toby did give him the gun should he need it. Meanwhile, Melissa had thought of sleeping next to Felix to keep him from punching Craig, but she knew all too well that it would mean no protection from her attacker by Evan.

 

For that reason alone – her own safety (and Evan’s mental health) – she stayed by his side. As he had always done, Evan shoved a small portion of the sheet between them and laid himself out beside Melissa. When she was comfortably positioned for sleep, Melissa drifted off. She could have sworn she was asleep for a millisecond when a hand shook her shoulder roughly.

“Evening,” came the deep, robotic voice.

Melissa denied herself the opportunity to kick him where it would hurt most and sat up on her elbows.

“You know,” she said as she held the stranger’s gaze, “I’ve always thought that men with red hair were hot-headed assholes.”

Melissa regretted having such a toxic tone. As soon as she finished the sentence, the stranger grabbed onto her shoulder amazingly hard and seemed to spit venom through the mask.

 

“How dare you insult Mark like that... I should have made that love bite bleed when I had the chance!”

“Wait! Please, I’m sorry. Just don’t do anything you’ll regret,” Melissa pleaded as the mask shifted.

“I’m almost certain I already have,” the stranger said as he leaned in close to her, “Close your eyes.”

Melissa knew that he expected a kiss and took no time in closing her eyes, locking her hands around the opposite wrist as a sign of her submission. The mask came off and his lips were crushing hers in her mind, but instead he pulled at the t-shirt and covered her mouth with one hand. As soon as she was silent, the mystery man bit at the love bite he had left the night before, making Melissa’s eyes tear up under their lids. She groaned which only spurred him on, made him try harder. This torture went on for at least 10 minutes, but for Melissa it was as if an entire decade had gone by. When he finally let her bruised skin out of his mouth, the man allowed Melissa put her owns hands over her mouth to stifle a loud sob. _He is a **monster**._

 

He crept away and – for the second time – Melissa waited until he’d moved back to his place in the line-up of bodies before she sat up. Silent tears fell down her face as she replaced her shirt, leaning forward to wrap her arms around her knees. She felt a shift and realised that Evan had rolled over in his sleep. Hoping not to wake him, she pushed the sheet toward him and slid over the end of the mattress. Picking up the makeshift pillow Melissa sat against the wall opposite Evan, face buried in the pillow as she began to sob the pain away. Her sobbing continued until a hand slithered around her back. Thinking it was the masked man Melissa hit the owner of the hand hard with the pillow, unknowingly waking up Jack. The man she’d hit was in fact the one person she was trying not to worry; Evan.

“How long have you been sitting over here for?” Evan asked as he kneeled in front of Melissa’s knees. She looked up with red, watery eyes and tried not to cry, but seeing his face in the dim light of the moon made it almost impossible.

 

“I don’t know,” she said as she racked her brain for a best guess, “maybe a half hour.”

Melissa saw Evan’s eyes fall to her neck and he moved out of the way of the light coming n through a window, allowing himself a better view of the man’s handwork.

“Oh God,” Evan sad as he scanned the blue and brown bruising, “Did he do this to you?”

Melissa took on a saddened expression and nodded as she tried to blink away a flood of tears.

Evan put himself up against the wall and opened the arm closest to Melissa.

“Come here,” he pleaded with his eyes never leaving her face, “you’re safe with NightOwl.”

Melissa managed a small smile and shuffled over until Evan could close an arm over her shoulder, her head resting on his chest.

“You’re one hell of a fighter, aren’t you?”

Melissa’s smile grew a little wider as Evan leaned down and sat his chin on top of her head. Evan felt Melissa push a hand against him and he moved his arm away, looking down into her eyes.

 

He sat his hand across the bruises the other man had left behind, leaning toward Melissa until their foreheads were touching.

“Can I kiss you?” Evan whispered.

Melissa was thinking of the word ‘yes’, but...

“No,” she said almost instinctively, “not until he’s gone or he admits defeat.”

Evan moved back and nodded, giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek.

“Agreed,” he said with a smile.

Melissa went back to the bed and lay down next to Evan, not even flinching when he neglected to put up the barrier with the sheets. She didn’t try to move away when he wrapped an arm around her protectively either. Amazingly, that night might have been the best sleep she’d had since arriving in the cafe. Jack – however – found it particularly difficult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title took a whole ten minutes to make: basically a byte is a measure of information within a computer system and is a play on words in regards to Melissa's current condition.


	15. Bird's Eye View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa volunteers to have blood drawn and a brawl ensues between 2 group members, resulting in a major setback... someone has been living a lie since Day 1, but who is it?
> 
> And which of the guys has a now-not-so-secret-crush?

Melissa was half-awake in the early morning. Her ‘friend’ hadn’t visited for a week and she was now closer to Evan than ever. He never stuffed the blanket between them and he would snuggle close to her, one arm draped over her ribs or stomach. Last night she couldn’t get her mind off of **him**.

 

_“Evan... is it stupid for me to be scared of waiting?” she asked him cryptically._

_“Waiting for what?” Evan asked, his arm tightening around Melissa’s body._

_“For that guy to show up... it’s nice that he’s gone but the stress and anticipation of him showing up is killing me,” she said quietly “It’s like I need him to annoy me so I can have peace of mind. It’s horrible.”_

_Evan sat up and looked down into Melissa’s eyes which had been fixed on the ceiling, his hands on either side of her chest to hold himself up._

_“Don’t tell me your seriously considering luring him out?” Evan said, Melissa’s eyes filled with tears._

_“God no... I just... it’s like waiting to be executed,” was been her sobbing reply “The sooner it happens, the better. The sooner we catch the bastard the sooner I can breathe.”_

_Evan sat a hand on Melissa’s cheek and swiped at a tear with his thumb, holding her gaze with his dark eyes._

_“Stop panicking so much,” he said with reassurance “You’ve worked yourself up over this. Whatever happens, I’ll be here. So will the others.”_

_Melissa brought her hand to the one Evan had on her cheek and leaned into it lightly. He leant down and – despite wanting to kiss her and hold like he would a woman – Evan forced himself to lose his eyes and press a kiss to her forehead. He caught sight of her bruises and understood what she meant in that moment. If **he** did something, the other man, she was prepared to let it happen but she wanted it to be quick. Something she didn’t have to think over. Something she wouldn’t be reminded of like her bruises._

_“Goodnight,” Evan whispered against her ear._

 

Evan was tapping her on her bad shoulder lightly to make her aware of no less than three other faces staring at her. While they had found enough food to sustain themselves, Melissa had grown gaunt. Her mind was so preoccupied with a missing Marzia and Alex’s ramblings in the bathroom about the manbies that she took little time to eat. Her thoughts drifted to Hannah a lot and the phone was out of charge. This phone might well be her only connection to Hannah until someone found her body or they found her alive. Melissa had figured the latter was impossible and gave in.

“Good morning,” Craig said as he plopped down beside her with a grin “How’s the end of the world coming along?”

Evan was frozen in place, staring at Craig unapprovingly.

“Fine,” she said as she stood up, her pants slipping down a little on one side from the lack of fat.

“It’s even better for the zombies though, they’re having a bloody field day.”

Craig knew she was telling him to drop it, so Craig muttered an apology and went with Toby and Mark to scrounge around for clothing – something they needed as much as food – leaving Melissa with Jack, Alex, Dan and Felix. Of all the men, Felix took Marzia’s disappearance the hardest. Then again, why wouldn’t he? He was the closest thing she had to a husband and he was always kind. Melissa trudged into the bathroom where she found Alex asleep in the tub, a pen and some paper from her autograph book sitting near his hand. She quietly looked at her shoulder – where the skin was healing and had begun to scab over – noting how deep the gash ran over her skin. Any deeper and she might have bled to death. Alex woke up while she was cleaning the skin and he watched silently, not making a sound until she moved her hand away from the wound.

“Morning,” he said sleepily.

“Hi,” she said casually “Had any luck with that formula you’re working on?”

“Quite a bit actually,” he said with a smile, his head hung over the side of the tub and his fingers supporting his chin.

“Cool. Tell me when you have something useful to say,” Melissa said angrily “And next time tell me you’re awake instead of staring at me.”

Storming out of the bathroom, Alex almost fell on his face to catch up with her as she made her way to the fridge and pantry’s downstairs to find a can of fruit to share with somebody. Given that Alex was here already, it’d have to be him. Picking out two clean spoons from the sink, Melissa handed one to Alex and proceeded to remove the lid with a can opener. Melissa offered it to Alex but he told her to take the first bite.

Just as the fruit entered her mouth, Melissa heard Alex say “I need your blood”.

The fruit slipped down her throat quickly and Melissa coughed hard, hoping nobody else had seen her eyes bugging.

“What the hell Alex?!” she whispered loudly.

“I need you to give me a litre of blood for a cure,” he said clearly, making sure there was no room for error.

“I had to wait until you’d gotten over Marzia disappearing. The only risk of this is dehydration. It happens quite quickly when you don’t eat.”

“Nerd,” Melissa said as she sat down on the first step on the staircase, Alex taking a seat further up.

He took a piece of peach from the tin and chewed it slowly, savouring the sweetness and the moisture. They sent the tin back and forth until there was nothing left but the juice. Melissa took a quick drink from one side, offering it to Alex with the side she had taken a swig from facing her. He took it with a gracious look in his eye. Melissa sat with Alex and they made a plan which Melissa decided **needed** to be relayed.

“So... we head over to some medical centre with three 1 litre bottles of water” she said slowly, Alex nodding after every few words so she knew she was on the right track “I drink the water, let you take as much blood as you can with a few lookouts outside and then you synthesise a cure?”

Alex gave a confident “Yep”.

“We’re screwed then,” Melissa said with hopelessness.

“What? Why are we screwed Melissa?” Alex said with an optimistic smile.

“I hate needles,” she whispered “Especially when it comes to blood tests.”

“Oh... well that’s a shit, isn’t it?” Alex said as he began to lose confidence.

“But if it means saving lives, I’ll try,” Melissa said as her face took on a light pallor.

Alex patted Melissa on the shoulder, taking the spoons and tin away. Feeling a mixture of nausea and happiness set in, Melissa distracted herself from the blood-drawing by filling up some bottles with water and putting them in the giant fridge. When that was done, she wandered upstairs and laid the plan out for Jack, Dan Felix, and Evan with Alex watching her closely, waiting for her to make a mistake. She only made one.

“It’s not a blood test Melissa,” he corrected her “I’m drawing blood, not testing it.”

“But you’re testing out possible cures, right?” she fired back, making Jack snicker.

Alex nodded.

“That’s still testing then, isn’t it?”

Alex was about to contest but instead he raised a hand and put it over her mouth.

“Hush child, your nerd is showing,” he said calmly with a straight face.

Jack, Evan, Dan and Felix all lost it. For a solid 20 seconds all Melissa and Alex could hear was laughter. Downstairs Toby and the others had come back, carrying a few tops, exactly eight pairs of pants and a small bag of sweets which they all recognised as gummy’s.

“I think that’s how many clothes I buy in a year,” Melissa said, earning a confused look from Mark.

“Wait,” mark said seriously “that much clothing in a **year**? For a female? Pull the other one missy.”

Melissa rolled her eyes and let the boys have at the pants, the smallest pairs being handed to Craig and herself. She ended up swapping with Craig because he came out of the bathroom with the pant legs down past his toes, tripping him over as soon as he stepped out. She found it odd to be wearing the same pants and didn’t let herself dwell on the idea for too long. At least they made her feel a bit warmer, like a seat someone else had used before her at school. Melissa skipped the fact that she hated needles and the pain they induced. She finally got to change her top – kindly donated by Dan as he liked the top he had and would rather keep washing it – to a red t-shirt. Mark, Craig, Toby and Evan had changed tops and managed to fin tops that suited their channels; Mark’s had a picture of a dog, Craig’s had a lovely blood-red sunset surrounded by palm trees, Toby’s had a picture of a bull that reminded her of the Minotaur from his animations and Evan’s had a beautiful snowy owl. After they had all eaten some fruit and other things from tins, Alex had a question that needed to be answered.

“So,” Alex said as he glanced around at the group “who’s staying and who’s going? We need to go ASAP.”

“I’ve got the water in the fridge ready to go,” Melissa said as she stole a glance in Evan's direction, accidentally catching Craig’s eyes instead “I just have to tell him how to find a vein.”

Craig practically jumped out of his chair and Alex put up his arms protectively.

“Are you fucking serious?” he shouted, a fist clenching at his side.

“Craig,” Melissa said as she grabbed onto his forearm “I was joking. He knows how to look for a vein, geez.”

“That’s not the sort of shit you joke about,” he said angrily, turning to look Melissa dead in the eyes.

Everyone was staring at Craig and his pointed finger, aimed at Melissa, began to tremble.

“I... I’ll be downstairs waiting,” he mumbled to Alex as he walked past.

Melissa made eye contact with Evan and he gave her a look that said something was up. Melissa excused herself from the group, saying that she was going to start drinking water to get herself hydrated before the blood-drawing began. They all knew better and decided to wait for a couple of minutes – it was a silent agreement. Melissa could see Craig hunched over on the step she’d been sitting on to eat fruit that morning... from a tin of all things. Craig had his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees and his eyes pasted to the floor. Melissa sat next to him and he jerked to life as if she’d pricked him with a pin when he finally took notice of her.

“Oh fuck!” he said with a gasp “you scared me half to death Mel!”

“Sorry... I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Melissa said, sitting a hand on his shoulder.

“How are you so calm about this?” Craig said in exasperation, flailing his hands around to indicate their situation.

“I just have to be... but nobody can hear us. If you want someone to talk to I don’t mind at all,” she said with a kindly tone, rubbing her thumb over his shoulder.

Craig shrugged her hand away after a moment, suddenly grabbing Melissa’s arm.

“I might know who it is,” Craig said as his eyes watered “but I don’t know. I wish I was certain. I saw someone sneak away the other week and he nearly caught me staring.”

“Is he tall?”

“Doesn’t look like it, but he has broad shoulders,” Craig said, letting Melissa go slowly as he came to his senses.

Melissa stood up and put out a hand. Craig raised an eyebrow and took it, letting Melissa lead him to the giant fridge. He held the door while she picked up the bottles, handing him one to carry. Melissa purposely dropped one and made it look like an accident. When Craig stood up, she was staring directly into his eyes.

“Uh... hi?” Craig said as he got the odd feeling that Melissa’s eyes could look at his innermost thoughts.

“You like me,” Melissa said with a smug smile.

Craig couldn’t hide the small blush that touched his face.

“You have Evan,” he said quickly, thrusting the bottle into Melissa’s arms “I’m not screwing around with that.”

“Who said I ‘had’ anyone? We’re not a couple,” Melissa said as her smile slowly disappeared and became more calculating “He’s just one of the people I trust... and he’s kind of got a thing for me. Mind you I’m not really in a position to complain; he’s ready to spring on that guy the next time he shows up.”

“You think the rest of us wouldn’t do the same thing?” Craig said as his jaw tightened.

“For someone with a high IQ you’re completely clueless about men.”

 “Oh really?” Melissa said, taken aback a little “And what makes you say that?”

“This,” Craig said, pressing a quick kiss to Melissa’s lips.

Melissa was silent for a moment, but upon hearing the door upstairs creak open, she snapped back into reality.

“Say anything to Evan and you’re dead,” she whispered harshly to Craig, a smile decorating his lips as they walked out into the front of the cafe. Mark, Toby, Evan and Jack were all there with Alex, watching with a trace of disgust as Melissa opened the lid of a bottle and sculled a quarter of it.

“You’re serious about this then?” Dan asked her as Alex stared at street names and led the way.

“Yes,” she said with a nod “I wouldn’t be out here if I wasn’t.”

“Well there’s something along the way that’ll make you smile,” Alex called form the front of the group “to get to the medical centre we have to go past Disneyland.”

“Oh fuck,” Melissa said with a sudden realisation “how many manbies would be hanging around there? Alex, can we go round it somehow?”

“Yes,” he said quickly “instead of going down... Disneyland drive we head down South Walnut Street.”

Craig burst out laughing and Evan and Mark were snickering.

“Terrific street names huh?” Melissa said sarcastically.

Toby just shook his head and Alex gave a small nod in his direction.

 

One Hour Later...

 

 The group were only just able to see the medical centre in the distance. Alex looked behind him and he could see that everybody had grown restless, so they all sat on the side of the road and all took a quick sip of the third bottle. On the way Melissa was practically forced to take a sip of the one she’d opened every five minutes by Alex. A few manbies had run around the side streets around them, but they seemed far more interested in body parts strewn about on the streets and a few people who gave out an occasional scream. It made Melissa’s blood run cold and Craig had made a few jokes along the way to stop her from becoming completely comatose. Alex had been glancing at Melissa constantly and Craig had noticed the way Evan’s jaw seemed to freeze shut while Alex had his eyes on her and suddenly relax when Alex looked away. He was certainly protective and he understood what Melissa had meant. He had become wary of everybody, no matter how well he thought of them. Craig blinked a few times and looked over at Melissa, who was pushing her fingers into her inner elbow. She started at Alex and nodded.

“Plenty of veins popping up in there... this’ll be child’s play,” she said confidently.

Jack and the others seemed to grow a little queasy at her words.

“So... have you all sorted out who’s staying close and who’s keeping watch at the stairs?” Melissa said casually, as if they were planning a holiday.

“How do you know there’s stairs Mel?” Jack asked automatically.

“How many levels does it have Jacky Boy?” Melissa said sarcastically with a smile.

Jack began to count and then he paused to say “Point taken.”

Mark and Toby were quite amused by Melissa’s comment, but Evan, Craig and Alex were watching Melissa. She had become ghost white despite telling them her veins were quite prominent. Melissa stood up and told the men to keep the bottle, leading to a small scuffle as they tried to get a hold of it again. Melissa started walking and as the men caught up, quickly assigning roles.

“Well I think Evan and I should stay with Melissa,” Jack said quickly “She’s definitely scared and she’d want to see a familiar face... especially Evan’s.”

Toby accepted it, since he was the man with a gun. Mark knew he was rather strong and also accepted it blindly. As soon as they entered the hospital, Evan and the others heard moaning. A single manbie came running toward them from their right, almost knocking Alex over. Toby pulled out his gun and fired one shot – the manbie was down. He was howling in pain and nursing his leg.

“Now we have one to test the cure on,” Toby said solemnly “sorry.”

“Where’s pathology?” Mark said as he scanned the walls and ceiling for signs.

After a mere five seconds, Jack said “Down there! There’s a sign down there!”

The group went past the manbie on the floor (who was still moaning furiously over his injured leg) and a large staircase to a big wall panel covered in names of specialist areas.

“Pathology is on the top floor” Alex said as his eyes spied the word ‘Pathology’ at the bottom of the list.

“Why is this upside-down?” Jack said in confusion “Shouldn’t the stuff at the top **be** at the top?”

Melissa raised an eyebrow.

“Are we seriously going to talk about this now; in a medical centre that could be swarming with zombie men?” Melissa said, absolutely bewildered.

“Yeah,” Toby said awkwardly “Change of subject and direction.”

Toby walked out to the staircase and watched the manbie slowly pull himself toward the door. Toby walked toward him but a small hand grabbed his arm, pulling him back. He turned and looked down to see Melissa looking up at him.

“Leave him,” she said as she held his gaze “He’s going to leave a blood trail so we can find him later on. You and Mark need to find something to tie him up with. Then meet us all upstairs... and be careful.”

Toby nodded and relayed the message to Mark, who followed him back past Alex, Evan and Jack.

“Where are they going?” Alex said wearily.

“You don’t have to worry, they have a gun for God’s sake,” she said with a smile, Evan darting in front of her to get up the stairs.

“I’ll go first,’ he said as he crept up the stairs.

Evan disappeared around a corner and came back.

“All clear,” he called down to them.

This continued for each floor until they found Pathology, glad that the trouble was over. To their left was a large amount of seating spattered with blood. The group found immediate relief when they realised bags of blood had burst open, rather than being taken directly out of someone’s body. At the opposite end of the hall was a door with a glass panel in the top. Melissa spied a chair and she knew exactly what it was.

“Found the room for blood tests,” Melissa said with an uppity tone.

Evan and Jack cringed at her words, finally understanding why she had wanted to get this over and done with.

“We’ll be at the door waiting for Mark and Toby,” Evan said as he stole a glance down the staircase “so don’t rush anything.”

Evan’s eyes were glued to Alex for a moment as he and Melissa trudged toward the room, a feeling of dread washing over the latter as the former closed the door. Melissa saw the swabs and needles in a container, taking one out and sitting herself down.

“Is there a pen in here?” Melissa said a little too coolly for Alex’s liking “I need to mark out where my vein is for you.”

“I know how to check for a vein Melissa,” Alex said with disappointment.

“People make mistakes when they’re under pressure Alex,” Melissa said as he passed her a ballpoint pen that was on the floor in a corner “I’m taking rid of the extra stress on both of us.”

Alex didn’t argue as Melissa marked a small spot on her arm, occasionally prodding it, rubbing it off and moving it slightly.

“Okay, I’m never going to say this again...” Melissa said nervously as she kept her finger over a pulsing vein “but I need you to take off your – ”

Melissa hadn’t said it, but Alex had already begun removing his belt and had passed it to her without shame.

“ – belt” she finished with a small blush “um... around the top of my arm. We have to trap the blood in there.”

“Drink a little more first,” he said as he passed her the bottle.

Melissa took a swig begrudgingly and sat the bottle next to her feet. Alex wrapped the belt around her arm and made it as tight as he could, holding her upper arm as pangs of guilt set in.

“Ready?” he said with a wary stare.

“Yeah,” Melissa said with a nod, marking the place the needle had to enter her skin with a small dot.

She took a deep breath in as something wet swiped itself across her arm. He was swabbing her skin before he put the needle in. The wrapping of the needle itself came off and Alex located the largest tubes he could find, as well as the necessary fixtures to hold everything in place.

“Alex, who taught you all this?” Melissa said to break the tension “and has anyone ever told you you look like James Spader when he was in Stargate?”

Alex kept his eyes on Melissa’s as he rubbed at her vein, moved his hand from her arm and slowly pressed the needle into her skin. Melissa did the same and her eyes and mouth twitched at the sharp stinging pain. When the pain stopped, she finally looked away from him.

“Well a lot of girls told me I was ‘hot’ in high school,” he said when blood began to enter the tube, changing it over after a few seconds “but no, nobody ever told me that I looked like Daniel Jackson. I’ll ask the next woman I date and see what she says.”

He glanced down at Melissa’s arm as a second tube filled up, the flow slowing a little.

“You’re pretty brave for doing this you know... considering how much you said you were afraid of it,” he said with a warm smile, putting his hand on her uninjured shoulder in reassurance.

Melissa would never admit it, but she liked to know that people cared about her. If he’d hugged her, Melissa didn’t doubt that Evan would take Toby’s gun and shoot him for being too close to her.

“It’s only when you have to put it in that I get antsy,” Melissa said in return, smiling right back at him, hoping her face didn’t betray her thoughts.

“I learnt all about blood from biology, but the blood-drawing was because of my mother. She’s a nurse,” he said with a hint of pride.

He saw Melissa’s lack of surprise and said “I thought you’d have a bit more of a reaction than staring at me blankly.”

“Sorry to break it to you, but lots of my friends mothers back home are nurses, so the idea doesn’t faze me very much,” she said blankly, staring at the deep red blood as it began to fill a third glass tube “nowhere near as much as blood tests.”

Alex nodded and laughed. Melissa glared at him, which only made him laugh harder.

“Sorry,” he said as he wiped his eyes, one of the lenses falling out.

“Are you in any pain? With your eyes I mean?” Melissa said after a moment.

“No, they’re just creepy,” he said with a lopsided smile “That’s why I can’t get a date.”

He gave a sarcastic thumbs-up and Melissa replied “Thank you, Captain Positivity.”  

By the fifth vial, Melissa’s blood flow had slowed down dramatically. Alex saw Melissa’s eyes darting around the room, analysing shelves as if she were supercomputers sucking up information.

“What are you doing?” Alex said with a glint of worry as he slipped the needle out of Melissa’s arm, pressing the swab down on the pinprick of blood that had left her arm.

“I know how to do this so that I don’t pass out from blood loss,”   

 “The vials were only 50 millilitres. Alex needs 1000 millilitres of blood, so I need to give him another ten times that amount... so that’d be 1000 divide 50... that’s twenty. I need to give up another 15 tubes of blood at just on five tubes per arm,” Melissa said quickly, the math calming her a little as she pulled her arm up “I have to do it in my other inner elbow and the back of each hand. In between I can drink water and hydrate myself enough to give you the full litre you’re after.”

Alex let his jaw fall open at what he’d just heard. It was in this moment that he realised Melissa had definitely told them the truth about her IQ – he couldn’t call her a liar even if he was promised a million dollars. Alex closed his mouth and Melissa sculled water, waiting a full fifteen minutes before she searched for a vein in her left inner elbow. Five tubes later, she repeated the process. Drink, wait, find a vein, use it and repeat. Alex had to admire Melissa’s perseverance in this situation given that he’d had to go into her left arm twice because he missed his mark.

“Thank God,” Melissa groaned after over an hour of pure torture “I can leave this place.”

“The rest of you can,” Alex said with a smile “but I can’t.”

Melissa rubbed the back of her right hand and stared at the bruises on her hands and inner elbows. Then she gave Alex a heartbreaking stare.

“Why?” she said as she lowered her voice.

Outside the door the four other men had been whispering loudly to one another, but it had fallen quiet.

 “Is it because of something we did?” she added, feeling more than a little hurt that someone else had to leave them.

Melissa stood up and Alex immediately set out to make her understand.

“No, no, nothing like that,” he said soothingly “I just need to stay here so I can synthesise a cure. There’s needles to administer the cure and places we can sort of... hide the manbies. That is, until we cure them. The last thing we need is a more adverse outbreak of disease.”

“Are you sure about – ”

A loud bang on the door made Melissa jump out of her skin and Alex merely jerked his head in the direction of the sound. Someone in a dark shirt was being pressed up against the door by someone else in a familiar top printed with their own logo... Jack was pushing Evan into the door and shouting at him.

“She trusted you!” they heard him scream in Evan’s face.

“Jack, back off!” Toby shouted above the rest.

“Jack, let him go!” Mark cried desperately.

Melissa ran to the door and ripped it open, the two men falling down, Jack on top of Evan. Taking the opportunity, Jack was prepared to take a swing, but Evan used his moment to pull back his arm to his advantage. He locked his legs around one of Jack’s and forced him to fall on his side to avoid injury. Melissa was surprised that he hadn’t given Jack as much as a slap for his outburst.

“Jack!” Melissa shouted at the man on his side as Evan stood up “what the hell are you doing?”

“I saw what he did last week,” jack said in a deep, dark tone “He was trying to kiss you even when you said no.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong Jack,” Melissa said clearly “He backed off and gave me a peck on the cheek.”

“Did he tell you his latest and greatest girlfriend looked **just** like you, that you remind him of her?” Jack said as he stood up and looked at Evan angrily.

“How the hell would you know...?” Melissa’s voice trailed off as her mind made the necessary connections.

“Of course!” she said “You know Nogla; he must’ve shown you the rest of the group, including Evan and his girlfriend.”

“He’s using you because he misses her,” Jack said insistently.

“Evan,” Melissa said, forcing his guilt so that he would tell the truth “is Jack right?”

Evan looked away from Melissa and started walking away without another word, guilt consuming his mind. Even when Toby began shouting at him to come back and face up to Melissa, Evan just kept walking. Jack looked at Melissa’s expression and she seemed to be annoyed rather than heartbroken. Then it hit him.

“You don’t really trust any of us, do you?” Jack said, feeling half-certain of himself.                   

 “I trust you, but never completely, no,” Melissa said without skipping a beat “I even have that issue with my friends and family.”

With her lips tucked into her teeth awkwardly, Melissa swiped at her lightly bruised hands and inner elbows where pinpricks of blood were starting to move down her arm. Melissa walked out of the small room and quickly explained that Alex was staying at the Medical Centre.

“There’ll be food in the cafeteria, but he doesn’t have much protection,” Melissa said as she looked up at Toby “so I need you to give up the gun.”

Toby exhaled slowly through as if he were sighing and handed the gun over to Melissa, who passed it to Alex, thanking the former with a smile and a nod which seemed to disconcert him. Jack was just listening to the conversation, waiting to get a word in.

“So Alex won’t leave then?” Mark said.

“He is,” Melissa said bluntly “but I think we should get back before Felix and Dan start worrying too much. Plus we have to catch up with Evan.”

Everyone shook Alex’s hand (after he’d put the gun down of course) but Melissa took a more comforting approach. Rather than shaking his hand, she made a come here gesture with her finger, and when he was down low enough, she hugged him.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she felt his arms move around her back “and good luck.”

The men said nothing. Alex was literally the only person anybody could trust at this point in time, even though it was his mistake that had put them all in this situation. He was righting a wrong, and that’s what mattered. Besides, if Melissa could trust him, so could they. With their goodbyes said and done, Melissa gave a final wave to Alex and they began their walk home. Evan was ahead of them by some distance, but he occasionally turned back to look at them. Melissa had seriously considered running down to him, but in this heat it would be suicide. The worst part was that she had blood on her skin. The manbies – with their superior sense of smell – she had mentally compared to cats that chase a moving foot or toe under a blanket; the more it moves, the more fun it is to stop it moving. With that thought in mind, Melissa watched Evan get slowly closer as he began to dehydrate. At this rate, they’d catch up to him. She was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bird's-Eye View is a bit of a complicated reference, but I'm sure you get the gist of it. Evan is NightOwl, a bird, and Jack's name Jacksepticeye has the word 'eye' in it; they fight because of their different views on the things Evan has done so far in this story. If you want the references to stop, tell me right now.


	16. A Dark Secret is Uncovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa and the crew say goodbye to Alex, jack says goodbye to a digit and the masked man is unmasked at last...
> 
> (Excuse the rhyming)

 “Thank you,” she whispered as she felt his arms move around her back “and good luck.”

The men said nothing. Alex was literally the only person anybody could trust at this point in time, even though it was his mistake that had put them all in this situation. He was righting a wrong, and that’s what mattered. Besides, if Melissa could trust him, so could they. With their goodbyes said and done, Melissa gave a final wave to Alex and they began their walk home. Evan was ahead of them by some distance, but he occasionally turned back to look at them. Melissa had seriously considered running down to him, but in this heat it would be suicide. The worst part was that she had blood on her skin. The manbies – with their superior sense of smell – she had mentally compared to cats that chase a moving foot or toe under a blanket; the more it moves, the more fun it is to stop it moving. With that thought in mind, Melissa watched Evan get slowly closer as he began to dehydrate. At this rate, they’d catch up to him. She was right. Evan was a few metres ahead of the group by the time they had gotten onto the street as the Anaheim centre. Melissa had been staring at the back of his head, waiting for him to turn his head, but that had stopped when they turned onto South Walnut Street. She was mad at him for sure, but the fact that he was ignoring her was infuriating. But this wasn’t about Melissa... not entirely. Evan was suffering too. He had been caught out in front of a majority of the group and he probably thought that she hated him. If only he understood that – while she couldn’t hand out trust – she was happy to give out forgiveness. Melissa forced herself to drop the water bottle in her hand and ran over to Evan at top speed. Jack was calling out to her but she didn’t care. Evan stopped walking and then sped up, but Melissa grabbed his arm and turned him around.

“Evan,” Melissa said as she kept a firm grip on his arms “Look at me.”

Evan lifted his head and revealed an expression that could make a burly biker cry. His cheeks were glistening with tears and Melissa had to do it. It was the one thing she knew how to do. She would use her words, her greatest weapon.

“Evan, I don’t hate you” Melissa said as a hand instinctually moved up his arm “I don’t hate anyone. Please, just come back with us and talk to me. Can you do that?”

Evan’s mouth quivered so lightly, as if he wanted to say something but struggled to get out. A tear slid down his cheek and Melissa rubber his shoulder to comfort him. Everyone else had crept past and seemed to be headed back. In any other situation Melissa would gladly fly into a rage, but calming Evan down was more important. Evan began to sob and his knees were too weak to keep himself standing. He slowly moved onto his knees and Melissa went down with him, her hands still fixed on his arms.

“Evan, are you okay?” Melissa said when his breathing became shallow.

Melissa was starting to worry; she’d never had to deal with a full-blown panic attack. All she could do was use logic and her ability to remain sane in the worst situations.

“Evan you need to breathe,” Melisa said as she began to rub his shoulder “Listen to my voice, focus on it. Don’t think about anything else. You’re fine. You’re with me.”

Evan’s breathing became less erratic and his sobs had grown quieter, but now he was starting to shiver. _Adrenaline rush from the panic attack... thank God that won’t lead to anything worse off._ Evan threw his arms around Melissa and they sat there in the middle of the street, arms wrapped around one another.

“I’m sorry,” Evan said over and over again “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

“Evan, stop apologising,” Melissa said, kissing his cheek “I haven’t been very truthful myself. I... I figured your protective tendencies would keep me safe and I never tried to find out why. I never thought I’d be a girlfriend look alike.”

Evan pushed Melissa back and held her at arm’s length and he looked gobsmacked.

“You knew but you didn’t know?” Evan said with grin.

“Well I’m not an idiot,” Melissa said as she stood up, putting out a hand for Evan “and neither are you.”

Evan took Melissa’s hand and stood up, the latter finding herself trapped in a hug again.

“I’ll still watch out for you... that’ll never change,” Evan said as he released Melissa from her confines.

They headed off down the road and broke out in a sprint when they realised the group were so far ahead. Five manbies set upon Jack, Mark, and Toby, having run from the direction of the cafe. Melissa froze up when she saw one of the infected men grab onto Jack, who was easily two feet shorter than him. The manbie closed his mouth around Jack’s smallest finger and...

“Argh!” came Jack’s pained scream as his pinkie was ripped away.

In a rush of adrenaline – with Felix and Dan rounding the corner as it happened – Melissa had taken out the manbie and moved Jack away from the fight with ease. Felix and Dan were amazed, but they didn’t have time to question what they’d seen. After a long, arduous fight, the four manbies had had enough and staggered away in defeat. Melissa was trying to keep Jack calm while she helped him back to the cafe.

“Hey Mark, I need you to run to the cafe and get me a bandage,” Melissa called out “and be quick about it.”

Mark was off in a hurry and got back just as the group had reached the front door.

“He’ll be okay, right?” Mark said worriedly.

Craig had come out and seen Jack’s bleeding hand, noticing that one digit had gone missing.

“Holy shit!” he shouted “You lost a fucking finger? That’s bullshit.”

“You’re telling me,” Jack groaned.

“We need to lie him down and put pressure on his finger,” Melissa said as she ran through the instructions in her head “but I have to make sure it’s clean first.”

Jack looked at his finger and said “At least it wasn’t one that I actually needed.”

Melissa helped Jack up the stairs and had him sit in the bed while she tended to his finger. He still had half of it. Melissa cleaned what was left of his finger with water and wrapped what was left of the bandage around it, keeping an eye on the blood as she went. If Jack lost too much blood then he’d be in trouble. She might have been intelligent, but she didn’t know how to stock up blood supplies other than to be hydrated or give a blood transfusion. She definitely couldn’t ask Jack to walk to the hospital.

“Jack, you need to lie back and keep your arm up to stop the bleeding until we can get someone to look at your finger,” Melissa said calmly “That’s all we can do until we go back to Alex or bring him back to the cafe.”

Jack nodded and raised his arm up.

“Thanks... but this still burns like hell,” Jack said as he closed his eyes to deal with the pain.

“I’ll go see if Mini’s got some of that aspirin left,” Melissa said, patting Jack’s shin.

She slid off the couch-bed and went to the door and out onto the landing to find all the men talking on the stairs.

“Craig?” Melissa said to the back of a scruffy, brown-haired head “You got any of those aspirin left? Jack’s gonna –“

Melissa was cut off by Craig who stood up and turned around with a lightly flushed face, handing her two small, white tablets. Melissa’s brow furrowed and she searched Craig’s face for an answer to the question plaguing her mind. _Why didn’t he take the rest?_

“I never ended up needing them,” he said casually, albeit awkwardly and lowered his voice.

“There’s a nurse running around looking after us and I have to give her the credit for my speedy recovery.”

Craig ruffled her hair and a couple of the men looked back, giving small smiles.

“Cut it out,” Melissa said in embarrassment, fixing up her hair “and thank you for the aspirin.”

Melissa walked past the others to get water for Jack, hearing a rather underhanded comment on the way up.

“Bet she’s slept with one of them,” a voice whispered to Mark.

In her concentration on Jack’s wellbeing however, she didn’t think on it. Melissa just took it for face value and thought to herself _Of course I did! I slept next to Evan, so I slept **with** him._ Sometimes she really was blind. Melissa sat down carefully on the bed, trying her best not to spill any of the water onto the aspirin. They couldn’t afford to waste valuable supplies. Jack’s chest was rising and falling evenly, which was a good sign in Melissa’s opinion.

“Jack,” Melissa said airily so she wouldn’t make him panic “You good to sit up and drink this?”

Jack took his eyes off of the ceiling and sat up slowly, looking a little worse for wear. He took one aspirin from Melissa, put it in his mouth and took a few quick sips of water. He did the same with the other and slowly drank the water in the cup. Melissa watched his skin for any sign of paling, but he looked quite healthy.

“When you’re asleep I’ll put on something to ward off infection,” she said coolly “If I do it while you’re awake it’ll hurt like hell.”

“Just do it now Mel,” Jack said with anger in his tone “It’ll save you the hassle of doing it later.”

“Craig is in on the whole stranger in the night thing,” Melissa said as she swept the first aid kit from the coffee table “He heard it happen one night but he wasn’t certain about who it was exactly. If it was someone close that means it was probably Mark, Dan or Toby... unless he was trying to avoid suspicion and it’s been him all along.”

“Don’t worry about that shit,” Jack said as she opened the case “Just worry about you and Evan for now.”

Melissa glanced over at Jack as she picked up the cream, giving a wry smile.

“I picked up on his protective nature early on... so I wasn’t actually that shocked to know that he missed his girlfriend and that he’d been pushing those feelings on to me,” she said quite bluntly “So we were basically using each other for our own ends.”

“That’s harsh,” Jack said as he began unwrapping his hand “Like... one second you’re snuggling the next you’re like ‘bye bye birdie’.”

Melissa laughed and looked at Jack’s hand, noticing a few small lines of blood. Using some of the moisture from his cup, she washed it from his wound.

“This is going to burn,” she warned him seriously “So feel free to say stop at any time.”

Melissa applied a small layer of the antiseptic cream to her finger and wiped it over the places where the bandage would touch Jack’s open skin.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” Jack said as he closed his eyes, ready as he could possibly be.

Melissa ignored the white bone she suddenly realised was sticking out of Jack’s severed finger; she quickly put the bandage back in place and made sure it was secured tightly around Jack’s finger.

“Oh Jesus,” Jack said as his head dipped forward “You weren’t wrong Mel.”

“I’ve already warned Mark,” Melissa said as Jack began to sit up straighter.

Apparently he could take the pain. Melissa watched Jack lay back down and huff loudly.

“I’ll bring the others up if you like?” Melissa asked.

“Uh... sure, if they want to see a man constantly waving at them,” Jack answered sarcastically.

 “I know you’re annoyed Jack, but it could’ve been a lot worse,” Melissa fired back.

“How?”

“You could’ve lost your entire right hand.”

Jack laughed and hyperventilated when he tried to breathe. He forgot that while Melissa could be serious, she did have her sense of humour to make sure there was never a dull moment in the cafe.

“Okay,” Jack said as wiped a tear from his eyes with his uninjured hand “Bring ‘em in before I die of boredom.”

Melissa told the boys to head upstairs and they had a rather nice evening, sharing a meal with none of the odd tension there had been the first three nights. It was calm, but that was for the time being.

 

Later that night...

 

Melissa was half asleep, staring at the ceiling with Jack to her left and Eva on her right like they usually were. Jack had been nursing his arm throughout the night, chatting away with Mark, Toby and Craig while she had been keeping an eye on Evan’s anxiety. Dan and Felix were discussing horror games and Dan kept repeating himself. He certainly agreed with Melissa’s logic.

“If you can’t deal with the trailer don’t play the game,” she said with a smile.

Dan had nodded and said “Exactly!”

She liked talking to them, the boys. They all had different personalities, but here and there she could find similarities. Dan seemed to be the odd one out because he almost never swore in his videos, and she appreciated his resolve. Melissa felt the mattress by her legs sink inward and opened her eyes in time to see somebody crawl up to her. The masked man had finally reappeared and he was pressing himself against her.

“You know what I like to do when cats are away?” he said through the mask, distorting his voice.

“Rape apparently,” Melissa said in a steely voice, forcing herself to look defiant.

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” the man above her said as he stroked her cheek “Well, at least not on purpose. It’s not fun when they cry, just when they scream.”

Melissa’s blood ran cold. _Has he done this before? TO WHO?_ Melissa’s panic made her breathing shallow and her eyes were watering up. She thought he would leave her alone after Marzia left, but no. This person – whoever he was – had set his mind on a task that he seemed desperate to finish.

“There are people here,” Melissa said desperately “They’ll hear me cry and we’ll all find out which sick son of a bitch you are.”

The man clasped a hand over Melissa’s mouth and ripped her blanket away form her body, trying to move his hand under her shirt. Though he was muffling her screams, Jack heard Melissa’s distress and kicked the masked man square in the groin, causing him to fall back and off of the bed.

“Fuck!” he screamed.

Everyone woke up and the man was trying to get back onto the bed in the hopes that they wouldn’t figure out who he was, but there was no such luck. Someone threw him to the floor in a fit of rage (which Melissa found admirable) and held his arms behind his back. Two people were consoling Melissa when the lights turned on. In her mind, Melissa saw the world slow down; Jack and Felix were at the light switch, staring at the masked man, waiting for the reveal. Dan was the saint who had hauled his ass down to the floor and Craig sat to her left while Evan was on her right, each holding a shoulder.

“No...” Melissa said as she looked at the mask “It can’t be?”

Evan marched over to the man and ripped the Kylo Ren mask from a very familiar face. Melissa saw Mark’s face – a horrid smile – and she stood up shakily, Craig restraining her from attacking him by pulling back on her wrists. He didn’t have to because she hadn’t planned on being aggressive.

“Why?” she said airily to mark as he continued to stare at her “Why would do something like this Mark?”

His face contorted into something of surprise and amusement.

“Oh... so nobody told you? Not even Mark?”

Melissa’s eyes widened.

“Your Darkiplier,” she said in horror at her realisation.

“Oh yes,” Dark said with an evil grin “Mark’s other personality. I’m so much better with my recklessness and lack of morals.”

Now Craig had to hold Melissa back.

“You sick bastard!” Melissa shouted as Dark’s face began to change from a smile to a reflection of her inner turmoil “I hate you! If you come near me again I’ll hang you by your toes above a shark tank!”

Dark seemed to go numb and a few tears slid down his face.

“Oh, are you sorry now?” Melissa said as she finally shook Craig off “You should be **ashamed** to call yourself a man.”

Craig wrapped his arms around Melissa’s shoulders as she began to cry, her head bowed down til her chin touched her chest. He was talking to her soothingly, telling her it was over.

“You’re fine,” Craig said as he rubbed her upper arm slowly “We can sort this out together.”

Dark’s head was hung low and Dan let him go, finally able to stop seeing red. When Dark looked back at Melissa, she realised that it wasn’t Dark.

“I have to go,” mark said as he moved toward the bed “I can’t stay here.”

They made eye contact and Melissa felt her heart break more than it already had in the past few weeks. Craig must have looked like a dangerous thug because Mark had gone ghost white and was suddenly moving quickly toward the door. Felix stepped in the way and punched him squarely across the jaw.

“That’s for being a perv... sick fuck,” he spat angrily.

Toby looked very disconcerted and Jack was finding it hard to so much as look in Mark’s direction.

“Are you gonna say sorry at all before you fuck off and leave us here?” Evan said as his eyes burrowed into Mark’s back.

“I...” Mark tried to get the words out but they caught in his throat.

He looked back at Melissa and Dan stepped in front of her, blocking Mark from her view.

“He doesn’t deserve to give her an apology,” Dan said darkly “Let the manbies have at him.”

“I deserve it,” Mark said as he opened the door and made his way down the stairs.

“You’re not going to stop him?” Jack said when he was sure Mark would not be able to hear them.  
there was a long silence as Melissa calmed herself to the point that she could stand without needing Craig at her side. He was still holding on to her, but his arms were now only there for comfort, not to keep her upright.

“He isn’t the one who should be out there,” Toby said out of the blue.

Everybody turned their eyes to Toby and he lifted his slouching shoulders up, making him seem to grow taller. Before he could speak, Melissa tapped Craig’s arms and she stepped forward.

“You wanted more subscribers,” she said as pieces of information fell into place like a puzzle “You sent Mark after me so that he’d lose his friends, his subs, his support and then it would go out to the big hero. You were going to stop him after he’d done the deed but you didn’t count on me being a loudmouth. All you did was send subliminal messages into your conversations and bam! He turns into Dark to complete the mission because Mark has morals to stop him.”

“You’re smarter than you look,” Toby said as he walked toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Jack said as Toby opened the door “There are too few people as it is!”

 “I’m doing what I deserve to do,” Toby half-shouted, looking at Melissa as if he knew she was secretly wishing him dead “I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive him.”

With those words, Toby left, leaving Melissa, Jack, Evan, Dan, Felix and Craig behind. Melissa looked back at Dan, Craig and Evan, noting that Felix looked rather mad.

“Well at least we won’t be crowded up tonight,” Melissa said as she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand.

She wandered over to the door and shut it, turning back to the others.

“We’ll go looking for them tomorrow when we’ve all calmed down,” Melissa said as she switched off the light.

Craig took Evan’s spot next to Melissa and Evan said nothing. Who was he to get involved in what Melissa did anymore? It was her, not his ex and he had to let them both go. Jack was at the far end with Felix while Dan got Jack’s spot, meaning Evan was stuck in between Dan and Felix’s back. Craig had his back to her. Regardless of whether he was awake or not, Melissa lay on arm over Craig’s ribs and moved a little closer to him. If he hadn’t been there she might have had a panic attack like Evan. Sometimes she was glad that she wasn’t one of the more unemotional geniuses she had met in her comparatively short life; they wouldn’t be showing kindness in return like she was. They would just say thank you and be done with it.


	17. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lost are found and the found are lost... this journey is nearing it's end for our brave heroes, but who has truly survived?

Melissa had found sleep quite easily that night, but the morning wasn’t so kind. She was woken up by the rough shaking of large hands on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open and met with eyes of a rare deep blue; it was Alex. Melissa sat up and looked around, surprised to feel a hand slip down her left ribcage which she noted was owned by Craig. Slipping out of his arm, Melissa walked downstairs and decided to talk about what Alex had been up to overnight while they ate breakfast. Like the last time, it consisted of a tin of fruit.

“So you have a cure ready to test out?” Melissa said after half listening to Alex’s scientific babbling.

Alex nodded and some of his hair fell into his eyes, making him jerk his head and swing it out of the way. Alex’s hair made her think about the many times she had invited Hannah to watch Harry Potter marathons and argue over the scenes that should have been left in the movie. It was too bad they’d never do that again; she missed having her close by. Hannah was always a comfort when she was sad, a hand to help her up when she fell and that little bit of tough love when she was being ridiculous. Perhaps she could make her proud.

“Are we going to search or that manbie or just try it out on another one?” Melissa said when she snapped back into reality, passing the peach tin’s liquid contents to Alex.

Again he drank half and gave her the rest.

“He’s outside,” Alex said as he moved his head in the direction of the back door.

Melissa listened out for a sound and a hand on her shoulder made her jump up out of her chair. Melissa huffed in annoyance when Jack raised his hands up innocently.

“Shit,” he said in replacement of an apology “I didn’t realise you were still on edge.”   

“Well Alex **did** just mention that there was a manbie outside, so yeah, I would be a little jumpy,” Melissa said sarcastically.

Jack nodded and lifted up his hand for Alex to see.

“That must have been fun,” Alex said with melancholy dripping from his voice.

“Okay I get it,” Melissa said feeling frustrated “We’ve been through some tough shit, but can we please go looking for Marzia? Or stab that zombie bastard with the cure?”

They all heard a bang and looked toward the back door.

“Well I know he’s out there now,” Melissa said with a combination of fear and disgust.

Craig – who seemed to be half asleep – walked down the stairs, followed by Evan, Dan and Felix. Felix was starting to look as gaunt as Melissa. He had always been thin, but now his muscles seemed to be wasting away. They had to give him closure, even if they found her body. She needed that closure too. Melissa felt ill for a moment and realised that there was a large patchy plastic bag sitting on the cafe counter where the glass tips jar had been. It was full of a deep green muck that made her stomach churn. It smelt like blood... a lot of blood.

“Are you okay Melissa?” Craig said when he noticed her skin become pale and her hands shake lightly.

“Not really,” she said honestly as nausea set in “The smell of blood makes me nauseas and I need to get away from it.”

Melissa went to the front doors and looked around before standing outside.

“I’m waiting out here so I don’t throw up on anybody,” she said through cupped hands “You can thank me later.”

Craig just shrugged comically and Melissa smiled. She stood leaning against the doorway as the others had something to eat and had quick discussions with Alex. Melissa paid no attention to the conversations; she had her mind on Mark and Toby. While she was mad with both of them in a way, she also wished they would come back. They were gone because of her and all she could do was let them go. Melissa’s lack of muscle tone had made standing up a chore and she chose to sit with her back to the boys and moved out of the doorway. Her head was tipped back, her thick brown locks brushing against the brick. Her eyes were closed as she thought through strategies to gather together manbies and let her thoughts run wild. She skipped from planning attacks or preventing injuries to the thought of finding the people they’d lost. She should be focused on finding people, not playing chess and using her new friends as pawns. Melissa jumped a little when someone came out and sat next to her, slipping an arm through the gap between her neck and the wall. His other arm held onto her shoulder and gently moved her toward his chest, holding her and keeping her close. Melissa let herself relax in the stranger’s arms for a while, a growing sense of trust forming in her mind. A hand ran over her cheekbone and down her cheek until it was holding her chin, bringing her close for a kiss. Normally she would have backed away, but she was mentally and physically tired of running from her fears. She had to face them. The hand left her chin and Melissa opened her eyes, almost having a heart attack when she saw Craig next to her as all the other boys walked out.

“Why didn’t you kiss me?” Melissa said as Craig helped her to her feet.

“It wouldn’t be right,” he said quietly as they all began walking around the back of the cafe.

Alex handed Melissa a bag of unused syringes which were quite small and turned back to the group.

“They use these for diabetics to give insulin,” he explained before he rounded the corner with a filled syringe “And the dosing is the right size. All that’s left to do is test this and hope nothing goes wrong.”

Alex disappeared around the corner and they all held their breath, waiting to see if he would die or succeed. To Melissa’s delight, Alex and a man in his forties rounded the corner, the older man appearing quite sickly to their eyes. Alex was supporting his weight on one arm and sat him on the ground beside the bin. Alex crouched down and began talking to the man, stringing together the few words he got out before the man passed out. Melissa crouched down next to Alex and stared into his eyes, hoping that they hadn’t lost another life.

“He’s not dead,” Alex said after sitting two fingers across the man’s wrist “He’s just exhausted because his body has been using protein as an energy source rather than sugar. Hopefully now that he’s cured his body will go back to using sugars and carbohydrates.”

Melissa glanced at the man and noted that he was quite weighty – a stark comparison to herself and Felix.

“He said there’s a group down the road behind us,” Alex explained as he stood.

Melissa kept her attention focused entirely on him.

“They have quite a few younger people with them and he described someone that sounds like your friend,” Alex said with a tone that told her he didn’t want her to get her hopes up too high “But he hasn’t been back for quite some time, so for all we know they’re long gone. Maybe they’re still hanging around the place, but he didn’t give me the full name. All he said was ‘Ar’ and I have no idea what that means.”

“Do you guys know if there’s an Arby’s ‘round here?” Melissa said after a moment’s silence.

“Well it seems to fit the bill, so I say we search for an Arby’s,” Alex said with confidence in his voice “If not we’ll have to come back and ask him about it when he wakes up.”

“Sounds like a plan... Jack, could you stay back here and wait with this guy?” Melissa said as she considered the boys individual traits “Your probably best suited to keeping people calm besides Evan. He’s one of the strongest people we have and he needs to be with us.”

Jack nodded and then waved the group goodbye.

“I think we do too much walking,” Melissa said when they were finally out of Jack line of sight “I’m going to run ahead and see if I can find it before you get there.”

Melissa ran off at full speed down the road, wondering what she looked like when she ran. In her mind the people behind her were holding back laughs or admiring her bravery. While she was lost in her thoughts Melissa collided with someone and they both fell over, the other person throwing a punch. Melissa groaned in pain when the clenched fist made contact with her stomach, hitting against her more pronounced ribcage. Melissa threw her arms over her head and recalled seeing blonde-brown hair.

“Stop!” she shouted “I’m human. I’m not a zombie. We have a cure.”

The person who had thrown the punch was suddenly hugging her tightly and Melissa opened her eyes. She must have died and gone to heaven if she was really seeing what she was seeing.

“Hannah?!” Melissa shouted as she embraced her friend warmly “Oh God I’ve missed you! I thought you were gone.”

“I thought exactly the same thing about you,” Hannah said as they both felt tears well up in their eyes, pushing her friend back a little “and who’s ‘we’?”

Hannah’s eyes bugged out of her head when she saw Felix, Dan, Evan, Alex and Craig running up the road.

“Hey Melissa,” Alex called out “is that Hannah?”

Melissa stood up and nodded, suddenly realising something.

“Hey, did you know a guy who was turned into a zombie? We found a guy who described you and said something about Arby’s. There’s supposed to be more survivors.”

Hannah nodded and when she saw Felix she smiled.

“Hey um... Felix?” Hannah said nervously, earning a nod from the blonde “Did your girlfriend tell you she was pregnant?”

Felix’s eyes widened at two realisations; first, he was a father and second, Marzia was alive.

“No,” he said as he shook his head “never.”

“Well then,” Hannah said with a big grin on her face “I should take you back to our hideout then. I figure you might want to meet your daughter.”

Had Jack been there, Melissa was certain he would’ve cried.

“And we have Mark too,” Hannah said slowly “he was a sobbing mess and he wouldn’t talk to any of us.”

“I know what happened,” Melissa whispered to Hannah “But it’s not something worth repeating. Let me speak to him when we get there.”

Melissa couldn’t see it, but Hannah looked stunned. What was so bad that someone like Melissa couldn’t repeat it? She knew not to ask, so she didn’t.

“How far away are we?” Evan said to Hannah after they started walking

“Just over a kilometre,” she said, not quite able to comprehend that Melissa had been hanging around so many YouTubers without being her stupid self.

Perhaps she had brought about her more sensible personality... she could adapt herself to any situation, so it was no surprise that she had survived. Melissa just pushed on and hid her emotions until they overwhelmed her.

 

Some Time Later...

 

They had gone past the Arby’s but nobody had the guts to question Hannah. If they did there was no telling what Melissa might say to embarrass them in front of her friend. As far as Hannah knew, Melissa could have gotten to know them personally. In honesty, she only knew Evan on a personal level, with Marzia in a close second. They heard and saw a woman in the distance shouting, waving one arm as she held a bundle in her arms. When they heard a baby cry, Felix started running. Melissa watched Felix slow down when he was close to Marzia, staring down at the baby girl in her arms. Melissa and the others kept walking, eyes watering when they saw Felix hold Marzia with one arm and kiss her.

“I thought you were gone,” he whispered as his eyes began growing glassy.

“Neither of us was,” Marzia said as she passed the baby to Felix “and you should have taken care of yourself.”

Marzia hugged Felix and her daughter.

“What should we name her?” Marzia asked Felix after a moment.

“I like Marcia,” Felix said with a smile as his daughter grabbed onto his finger “That way both my lovely girls will come running no matter who I’m talking to.”

“You’re so charming, aren’t you Felix?” Melissa said as she, Hannah and the rest of the group gave smiles to the baby and Marzia.

Marzia stepped away and gave Melissa a hug.

“Thank you for looking after him” she whispered.

“Don’t thank me, the others helped too,” Melissa said as the baby looked over to her.

It began to smile and laugh.

“Hey,” Felix whispered loudly “don’t make my daughter like you more.”

“Sorry,” Melissa said with a big smile as they walked into a small convenience store full of people “I just have that affect on peop – ”

Melissa caught sight of a man in a corner, standing against a wall and drinking a can of coke. Their eyes met and he practically jumped out of his seat and walked away quickly, hoping he could get away. Hannah held onto Melissa’s shoulder and gave her a set of directions she didn’t understand.

“First hallway on your right, second door,” she whispered without thinking for a second.

“Hey Alex?” Melissa asked as she turned back “could you tell everyone about the cure and make sure nobody leaves? With this many people we could gather up manbies and – Hannah I know you don’t understand what that means, he’ll explain it – and cure them. Got it?”

Alex nodded.

“Make sure you bring him back,” Alex said with a sombre smile.

“I will.”

Melissa ran down the hall, taking her first left. She glanced back down the hall and saw the toilets on her right. _Second door huh? I wonder what room it is?_ With traces of worry in her mind, Melissa forced herself to open the storage room. The room was big enough to fit in a small crowd and she guessed that they also stored other products in the room besides cleaning products. The lights were off and she flicked a switch, revealing a man at the very back of the room covering his head with his hands and his knees up near his face. He was hiding himself from her.

“Mark?” Melissa said as she walked toward him “why are you...?”

“Stay where you are,” Mark shouted “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve done enough already.”

“You didn’t do anything to hurt me,” Melissa said as she stopped half way across the room “Toby spoke to you and brought out the darkness in you. He forced you to do the wrong thing and he left out of guilt.”

“That doesn’t make what I did right,” Mark said as tears began rolling down his cheeks.

“I never said it was,” Melissa said as she continued walking forward slowly “I was scared, I’ll admit that any time you ask me.”

Melissa kneeled down in front of Mark and sat her hands on his arms, gently pulling them away and looking into his eyes.

“I’m scared of your dark side,” Melissa said calmly “But anyone would be if they met him in person. He’s a bit of a dick when he wants to be.”

Mark swiped at his eyes and his sobbing stopped, but his frown was still there.

“But you’re not. You have a kind, caring heart and you love the people around you like family. You asked me a question that first night and I have to change the answer.”

Mark shook his head.

“I don’t want to hear it,” he said under his breath “I know I kissed you because I tried to be gentle but Dark had his heart set on doing something I’d hate.”

“I kissed Dark,” Melissa said with a smile and leaned in close, whispering to him as if she thought someone might hear “but I never got to kiss you.”

Mark looked away from Melissa but she placed a hand on his cheek and brought his face close to hers, her long lashes hooding her eyes. 

“I trust you,” she said as their lips met in a chaste kiss.

Mark was silent and moved his head forward for a moment as if he wanted to go in for a second try, but he quickly stopped himself. Melissa caught on.

“It’s fine, I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Mark kissed the corner of her mouth in preparation and quite suddenly kissed her fully, surprising Melissa in the process. Unlike the kiss with Dark, he wasn’t demanding or rough. This was the kind of kiss girls spoke about in school or in movies. Melissa was so caught up in the kiss she almost forgot that they were still fighting for survival. Mark pulled away with a light flush in his face and Melissa helped him up. Rather than leaving straight away, Mark closed his arms around Melissa and gave her a hug. Her body stiffened a little and he ran a hand over her long brown hair.

“I’ll never do that to you again,” he promised her “I swear.”

Melissa hugged him back and they stood there for a moment, letting their fears drift away.

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of the story before the epilogue about the 'manbies' and four alternate endings for Melissa's life after everthing that happened.
> 
> In order, she can end up with these four characters:   
> Evan  
> Mark  
> Craig  
> or Alex.
> 
> Which ending you choose is up to you... you can even read them all and choose a favourite.


	18. Epilogue - One Month Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa and Hannah are seen of at the Airport by their friends, minus two...

 

Mark, Jack, Dan, Craig, Evan, Felix, Marzia, baby Grace, Melissa and Hannah were all at the airport to see off the young women. Hannah shooks hands with everyone, except Jack. Melissa had begged him to give her the option of a hug, which Hannah took awkwardly. Jack had to quickly put out his arms and accept the bundle of joy as Marzia gave to girls a hug at the same time. Melissa knew Alex was busy synthesising a cure, so she wasn’t upset about not getting to see him one last time. While Jack held grace in his arms with a very fatherly aura hanging around him, Melissa looked over at the time.

“We have to board pretty soon,” she said with a weak smile “So I guess I’ll see you lot ‘round the interweb.”

Craig pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and held it to Melissa.

“Not quite,” he grinned.

Melissa opened it and studied the cacophony of names set out in rows. Everybody had written down their e-mails, Skype names and even phone numbers.

“We can’t take this,” Melissa said, feeling flustered “can we Hannah?”

Hannah took the piece of paper and studied it, a smile spreading across her face.

“Well if you don’t want it I’ll keep it,” Hannah said, causing the others to laugh.

“Melissa!” came a masculine voice in the distance “Wait!”

Melissa recognised the voice and followed its source. In a pair of black jeans that revealed how impossibly long they seemed to be. His shirt had a plaid pattern that she recognised as the Gunn colouration, further proving to herself that he looked like Daniel Jackson. She could barely contain her smile, so Melissa tucked her lips in between her teeth and waited for Alex to get to them.

“I had to... thank you for... what you did while you were here,” Alex puffed, wiping long strands of hair from his face as he huffed a few times “And when I got to the hotel they said you’d come here. I almost didn’t make it.”

Melissa was staring at Alex’s eyes and he had a big grin on his face.

“You want to know why my eyes are grey, right?” he said, noticing her piercing stare.

“Yeah,” Melissa said “Or I’m staring at your Daniel Jackson cosplay.”

“You pick,” she added with a smile.

Alex handed Melissa a small, square box half the size of her palm. She was about to open it when Alex closed his hands over hers.

“Keep it closed until you’re on the plane,” he said with a smile “and good luck back home.”

Alex leant down and gave Melissa a hug, winking at Hannah.

“That serum’s been working on everybody so far,” he announced to the gathered adults “so we have a fair few people – uh... well **women** – to thank for that. Too bad one of them is leaving.”

“I can always come back you drama queen,” Melissa said sarcastically “I’m not going to Hades any time soon.”

A sound rang out through the speakers in the room and a hostess made an announcement.

“Could all Qantas customers flying on flight DJ354 to Adelaide please make your way to the gate as your flight will be boarding shortly,” the woman said delightfully, the odd chime playing once again.

“Well this is where we say goodbye,” Hannah said with a weak smile that mirrored Melissa’s.

Hannah pulled her phone out of her pocket (which jack had returned to her once they had found their way to the hotel the girls had been staying at) and opened up the camera application.

“Up for a quick photo?” Melissa said, taking Hannah’s lead.

They all nodded and got into position; Felix and Marzia were at the centre with baby Grace, Mark stood right next to Felix, with Jack and Craig on his right. On Marzia’s side, Melissa and Hannah stood between Craig and Evan, with Alex furthest to the right.

Alex held out his long arm and said “Smile everybody!”

He took the picture and their delight was frozen in one heart-fluttering moment. Nobody would have guessed that they had been through the greatest trials of the human race; the very real zombie apocalypse. As they waved goodbye to their newfound friends, Melissa began to wonder. What would have happened if she wasn’t as smart as she was? What if they had never run into Alex? What if Dark hadn’t scared Toby away? Was it her fault if he was dead? Melissa shook her head. Toby had left because he knew that what he had done was wrong. _He didn’t deserve to die though..._ Melissa took her seat next to Hannah and fastened the belt with a high-pitched click. Hannah looked over at Melissa and laughed to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Melissa asked when Hannah was finished.

“Do you realise how long we’ve been gone from school?” Hannah said, barely holding back another laughing fit “Our teachers are gonna have a fit!”

Melissa smiled to herself and laughed quietly.

“Your Mum was pretty freaked out, wasn’t she?” Melissa said as Hannah switched off her phone, the former noting all the messages.

“So was yours you dope,” Hannah said as she relaxed into the chair “Now open that box because the anticipation is killing me.”

Hannah looked at the box in Melissa’s hands and they dropped the subjects of their families. They had time to worry about that later on. Melissa looked at the box closely, staring at the gold lines around the edges. It wasn’t fancy, but it had its own charm. Melissa opened it to find a piece of paper inside. Alex had written a note, which Melissa whispered to Hannah.

 

_Dear Melissa,_

_I could not think of any other way to thank you for everything you did for me, your friend Hannah and all of the people you made friends with over here in America. I am a man of sentiment and I took your jibes about Daniel Jackson to heart. There is a picture on the back of this letter of what I am sending over to you. And in case you want to know, I had some experimental surgery done. I do genetics, not biology, so I suppose they stabbed my eye at the right angle and fixed them? Well, whatever they did, I can see and my eyes aren't pink anymore. They just look like they're made of silver._

_Hope to see you sometime soon,_

_Alex Greene_

_PS We have one another’s initials on the back._

Melissa turned over the piece of paper and a big smile spread across her face. Hannah looked at the pendant and was clearly confused.

“Why’d he buy a gold disc?” Hannah said with a furrowed brow.

Melissa dropped her smile and looked at Hannah seriously.

“You don’t remember that movie?” Melissa says with fervour “Where the nerd with allergies finds the God that’s actually an alien?”

“I think so... Alex looks kinda like him.”

Melissa was mentally face-palming herself at this point.

“Well this is a DHD,” she explained hastily, hoping to make Hannah understand “A Dial Home device. It’s from the movie Stargate and the nerds name is Daniel Jackson... or Alex Greene.”

Hannah winked and Melissa stared at her angrily.

“What?” Hannah said defensively.

“You know what you pain in the ass.”

“Oh come on! He likes you,” Hannah blurted out as a male flight attendant darted past.

“Not you,” Melissa said quickly “She’s talking about someone else!”

The flight attendant said nothing and disappeared, beginning the safety routine before the plane could take off. This was her last journey. Melissa was finally going home with Hannah.

“Hey Hannah?”

“Yeah?”

“VidCon was pretty short, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is almost over... and here is a link to the necklace described in-chapter so you know what the hell Melissa and Hannah are raving on about. Link: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/183755762/stargate-dhd-pendant?ref=market


	19. Ending One: The Ladd With Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The First of four possible endings where melissa ends up with our favourite Ladd...

2017

 

Melissa was in the taxi, trying not to cry. He landed himself in hospital. Craig was hit by a car and Jay was in an induced coma. If Nogla hadn’t told her she would have found out far too late. When she had started her channel MellsWell, Melissa had been asking everybody for programs that wouldn’t lag her computer, the best camera placement and all sorts of boring things she needed to understand. Craig had been the biggest help and – when she had managed to bring out 10 well-edited music videos – he let her join in with Cards Against Humanity. Nogla was always swearing and she tended to win a lot of the matches, which poisoned him against her for a whole twenty seconds per video. Talking with the boys was always awkward because they tended to be quite racy or pertained to the female gender. After a month the fans started to give her support, subscribing in the hundreds. By the time she hit a million, Craig was creeping up to 4 million, making it a friendly competition. But that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was seeing him and helping him in any way that she could. When the taxi stopped outside of Craig’s apartment, Melissa thanked the driver and paid the fare.

“Would you like me to carry one of those for you?” the driver said as Melissa walked one of them toward the front door.

“No,” she said with a smile “I’ll be fine. Thanks for the offer.”

Melissa wheeled the second bag over to the front door, opening it to reveal a stairwell.

“How the hell did he get up there?” Melissa said to herself in bewilderment.

Melissa had seen his video about the accident an hour after she got off the plane. He hadn’t posted it the same day, but the pain in his voice seemed fresh. The only reason Nogla hadn’t told her to stay in Australia was Craig’s parents. As Melissa climbed the stairs hauling her two small suitcases, she went through the Skype call in her head.

“Hey Mel, you’ve got enough money for the flight right?” Daithi had said to her a few days ago.

“Yeah,” she said sheepishly “But why can’t his parents get over?”

“Some customs shit,” he said with sorrow in his tone “They’re passports were out of date and they kept asking everybody to help out. Because Evan’s had a fall out with him he’s practically forced un ultimatum on us. Besides, he needs some emotional support and judging by all the shit that happened in California, you’re the best option.”

“So when should I head over? I mean... I have funds for a good two months,” Melissa said quickly “But I’ve got to sort out school and get my Mum and Dad to give the okay.”

“When you get the time,” Daithi had said with a smile “Don’t try to do the impossible.”

“I won’t Daithi,” Melissa’d said as she sat the cursor over the End Call button “and thanks for the call.”

Then she had booked the tickets a day later. She had all the work packed into one of the suitcases along with a camera and a laptop, chargers and basic necessities. Melissa reached the front door and knocked lightly, waiting to see if it would open. Melissa’s heart broke when she saw Craig standing at the door, leaning hard on a walking frame. But her spirits lifted when she saw the smile on his face.

“Melissa? What the hell are you doing here?” he said in surprise.

“Hi Craig,” she said weakly, trying not to let her worry show “So uh... Daithi tell you I was coming?”

“Obviously not,” he said as he hobbled out of the doorway so Melissa could walk in “Leave your stuff at the door. I haven’t spoken to you in a while.”

Craig pulled a face and Melissa spied a large bruise running along his shin and calve; it was a horrid shade of purple with a green-yellow tinge around the edges. He was struggling to move and she wanted to help him, but she had no idea how.

“So what have you been doing with yourself besides resting?” Melissa said when Craig began arranging himself on his lounge.

He had a pillow sitting under his battered and bruised legs, another supporting his upper body. At his height, he took up most of the lunge, leaving Melissa with the beanbag on the floor.

“Well I managed to find some old recordings and upload them,” Craig said as he began to relax into the lounge again “So I guess I’ll put up a video about the accident and explain it to the poor souls who don’t have twitter or Facebook.”

“They’ll want an update on Jay too,” Melissa said, moving the massive beanbag closer to Craig.

“If you need a hand setting up or doing something around the apartment, just ask me,” Melissa said tenderly, sitting a hand on Craig’s shoulder.

Craig opened his eyes and smiled at Melissa, swivelling around so that he was facing her.

“Why don’t you sit up here with me?” he said as he shifted, pulling another pained face “There’s heaps of room.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t do that. I might knock into you or something,” Melissa said quickly.

“I have Game of Thrones?” he said teasingly, waving around a remote that he had picked up off of the coffee table.

“Fine,” Melissa said, feeling defeated.

Melissa sat cross-legged next to Craig and he laid out his legs again, his back pressed against her stomach and chest. She moved a little further back into the corner and – for no reason she could think of at that moment – Melissa ran a hand through Craig’s hair. He said nothing and switched on the TV, searching through the channels until he found HBO. Craig was up to season 2 and Melissa refused to say anything that might spoil the series for him.

 

Some Time Later...

 

Craig paused the show and looked to his right, finding Melissa’s eyes close to his.

“Oh shit, hi,” Craig said, laughing really loudly.

Melissa smiled and shook her head.

“They hit you pretty hard huh?” she teased.

Craig sat up and Melissa sat her hands on his ribs, being careful of his back. A couple of times during their marathon he had slipped a hand between them to rub at a sore spot along his spine. Craig moved his hand to do it again and Melissa took the initiative, rubbing small circles with the heel of her palm over the point that seemed to cause him so much trouble. Craig made a sound and she moved her hand back.

“Sorry,” Melissa said automatically.

“You didn’t hurt me,” Craig said with reassurance “I just didn’t know I was going to get a massage. It felt kinda good actually. I can’t really reach everything.”

Melissa moved hand back to Craig’s spine and began massaging him again, earning a moan. She barely held back a laugh and Craig caught on.

“Sorry,” he said as he giggled at his feet “Haven’t got any other sound to make.”

“How about **any** other sound?” Melissa said with a grin “I wouldn’t want to give the neighbours any ideas. They already think you support the Nazis.”

Craig leant forward and began laughing for a solid twenty seconds.

“Oh God! I needed that,” he said, turning to look at Melissa.

“What?” Melissa said with furrowed brow.

“I keep forgetting how cute you are,” Craig said with smile.

“Well you might be the only one who thinks so,” Melissa said as she shifted her legs “I’ll have to love you and leave you; my feet are going numb.”

Craig put his legs over the side of the lounge and Melissa stood up, holding onto the arm of the lounge and massaging her foot through her shoes.

“So are you up to cooking?” Melissa said with a face that said ‘I know you can’t, but I’ll ask anyway’. Craig dropped his smile and shook his head no. Melissa laughed and walked over to the kitchen, opening cupboards and drawers so she knew where everything was.

“So how does... chicken Caesar salad sound to you?” Melissa said after a quick search of Craig’s fridge.

“That sounds really good actually,” Craig said with a nod.

“You bet it does bitch,” Melissa called out to him as she picked up a frying pan.

Craig used his walker and managed to walk over to the island bench, leaning heavily on it. He was watching Melissa chop up two small rashers of bacon and start preparing the pan she had put on the stovetop. Watching Melissa cook was fascinating to him; the amount of concentration she put into making a meal was incredible. Melissa made a similar face when she was strategising or making plans. It was quite adorable that she took her new role as his short-term caretaker so seriously. Craig grunted as a few ache ran through his legs. He suddenly felt his legs give way and barely caught hold of the walker in time to stop himself from falling over. Melissa was at his side straight away and looped an arm around him.

“Sit down you retard!” she said angrily “You shouldn’t stand up for that long with your legs in that condition. If I hadn’t been here you could’ve hurt yourself really bad.”

“I don’t need someone to babysit me,” Craig protested “I’m a grown man”.

“Even grown men need to sit down and shut up,” Melissa said as Craig practically fell onto the lounge.

Craig held her eyes for a moment and they could see how much they were hurting each other. This wasn’t going to be as fun as Melissa had hoped; he wanted to do something with his time and it was killing him just as much as the pain. Melissa bent down in front of Craig and sat her hands on his shoulders, keeping their eyes locked.

“I am here to help you heal,” she said as she searched his face “I hate seeing you like this and I know it’s shitty, but you need to trust me. I was worried about you and here I am; don’t try to throw me out on the first day.”

Melissa leant forward and kissed Craig on the forehead, walking back to the kitchen to finish their dinner. Craig sat there staring straight ahead where Melissa had been; he was shocked that Melissa would be so intimate with him when they were alone. What had he done to deserve someone who cared about him so much? Craig zoned out and didn’t hear Melissa tell him she was bringing over his bowl.

“You alive Craig?” Melissa said with a concerned yet mischievous smile “I’ve got your salad here in my hand.”

Craig looked up at Melissa and took the plate, muttering his thanks under his breath.

“Is something wrong?” Melissa asked him after a moment of silence.

“No, I just... Why are you here?”

Melissa was taken aback.

“Well Daithi told me your parents couldn’t get over here and he figured I’d be the next best thing,” she answered meekly “But I think he just wanted me to be here because I’m a girl.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well... I guess he wanted you to feel – what’s the word I’m looking for – safe, that’s the one. With the tension between you and Evan, it would have been insane to have anyone else here.”

Craig said nothing and took a spoonful of his meal, crunching through lettuce and some pieces of salty bacon.

“Is it good?” Melissa said warily.

Craig almost choked on his food, placing a hand over his mouth to avoid spitting it out. He swallowed it down quickly and shook his head.

“No, no, its fine, it’s good,” he said hurriedly.

 Melissa smiled and sat between Craig’s legs, her back pressed up against the couch.

“Calm down,” Melissa said “I was pulling your leg.”

Without thinking, Craig blurted out “I’d rather you pull something else.”

Melissa started laughing and craned her neck, seeing his horrified face. At this point she was laughing so hard she nearly dropped the bowl in her hand.

“What are you making that face for?” Melissa wheezed.

“I wasn’t kidding,” he said as if he had admitted to committing a murder.

“Oh. Well I suppose I can’t blame you; I am a total babe. The guys love me back home.”

“Are you serious?” Craig half-shouted.

“No. I wanted to see what you’d do if you thought I was with somebody else... and fuck was it worth it,” Melissa said with a cheeky grin.

Later that night, Craig and Melissa were back on the lounge watching Game of Thrones, but not before watching the news.

“Famous YouTube personality Toby ‘Tobuscus Turner was found dead today in an institution, having tried to cope with severe psychological issues.” The news reporter said with a stern expression

“He was found last year repeating the words ‘I’m sorry’ to any female staff members that walked in. After being put on medication Turner claimed that he instigated another man to attack a young woman he only named as Melissa. Psychologists believe his guilt caused him to commit suicide.”

Melissa went numb for a moment and Craig said nothing, not wanting to get in the way of her already heightened stress levels. Melissa turned off the TV and went back to massaging his back for a good half hour before her hands began to cramp. Craig had told her to leave it for a while and rest, but he hadn’t expected her to sit back between his legs and rest her head against the side of his knee. It wasn’t his fault that it had happened. He hadn’t meant to get excited by her sitting close to him. That was just what his body thought was appropriate and he had no control over it. Well, not enough to stop it. Feigning a sore leg, Craig ran a hand down past his knee and ‘massaged’ it.

“My leg’s being a shit,” he said with his best acting skills in play “Could you give me my walker? There are sheets and blankets in the cupboard next to my room.”

“Sure,” Melissa said with a smile, now bothering to look back.

Melissa stood up and brought the walker over, sitting it in front of Craig. When he stood up, she almost laughed, but managed to keep it back.

“Need a hand at all?” she said innocently.

“No,” Craig said with a smile “You are officially relieved of duty. Goodnight Melissa.”

“Goodnight,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

Craig smiled and moved off toward his bedroom with Melissa close behind so she could get sheets. But that wasn’t her only plan. Craig turned on his bedroom light, closed the door and the mechanism clicked. Melissa listened to drawers open and close as Craig dressed himself, finding it odd that he kept grunting and making pained sounds. But it didn’t take long for her to understand what was happening. _He doesn’t want me to see him naked._ Melissa was smiling to herself until his light went off. She didn’t have time to stand around and listen to a grown man dress himself. Melissa walked over to the lounge and threw down a sheet, keeping her ears peeled for a particular sound she wanted to hear. When she had finished making her bed, Melissa grabbed one of her bags and changed into a tank top and shorts, decorated with feminine Star Wars logos. She loved them to death and it seemed a shame to leave them in Australia. Melissa went to the door and pressed her ear to it, slowly turning the handle. Every second or two, she would pause and wait for another sound. When the door opened, she was completely unsurprised to hear heavy breathing and hisses of pain. This was ridiculous: he was having private time on his bed and hurting himself while doing it because of her. Now she was about to take over. _Good fucking luck to me._ Melissa was next to the bed when the heavy breathing stopped and a phone light was in his eyes.

“Why the fuck are you in here?” Mini screeched “I thought you’d be in there crying over Toby.”

“I’m not one to cry and he said himself that he was sorry,” Melissa shouted back, shielding her eyes “You should have told me you couldn’t dress yourself properly.”

Craig pushed something back into his pants and glared at Melissa in the darkness, hoping she hadn’t seen what he did.

“And how can you help me if I’m dressed already?” Craig said angrily.

“I can finish what I started,” Melissa said eagerly, grabbing hold of the phone and ripping it from his hands.

She held it out in her other hand and leant over Craig, pecking him on the lips. The phone light went out and they were plunged into darkness. Craig was very ready to kiss Melissa again and he managed to smash their foreheads together. Melissa rubbed his forehead and turned on the phone, laughing a little to find that Craig had no password. She turned on the torch light and sat the phone on the bedside table, a few centimetres out of Craig’s reach.

“You’re a cheeky shit,” Craig said with a grin on his face.

“A certain group of adult men had a bad influence on me,” she said with a smile.

“Get up here with me,” Craig said, feeling exasperated “I’m not leaving you on the floor.”

“What if I knock your leg or some shit?”

“That won’t happen,” Craig said with a wink.

Melissa walked around to the left hand side of the bed and slid in beside Craig, being very careful with her feet as she moved closer. Craig rolled over slowly and pulled Melissa in to his chest, kissing her with a passion. Melissa moved her hand down Craig’s stomach to his crotch, feeling quite proud of herself when she found that his pants drawstrings were undone. She’d made him this desperate just by being near him. Craig had his hands on her hips and was running them along her legs as she began to rub her hand over the bulge in his track pants. Craig broke away from the kiss to make a small moan and Melissa decided to kiss his neck, making him moan a little louder. Melissa took hold of his member, moving her hand over it and slowly stroking it.

“Oh fuck,” Craig said under his breath, kissing Melissa again to hide his moans.

Craig could feel something building up in his stomach and it felt almost painful. Craig had begun to move against Melissa’s hand a little and she gripped him tighter, leaving him almost breathless. Without a word, Melissa sat up and changed arms, using her right hand to massage Craig’s back while her left hand continued its counterparts work.

“I’m close... holy shit,” Craig managed to say between raspy breaths of air.

Melissa leaned in close and – instead of placing a wet kiss – sucked lightly on Craig’s pale skin.

“Oh fuck,” he moaned loudly “I’m close.”

With a wicked grin, Melissa sped up the movement of her hand, sucking hard on Craig’s neck. He gave a strangled cry and his body went rigid as his orgasm washed over him. Melissa felt something warm hit her hand and she almost squealed; she’d been expecting it, but not this soon. Obviously he’d been without someone else for a long time. Craig was shaking lightly and suddenly snapped back into reality.

“Uh, fuck, um... there’s tissues on the table, I’ll grab on for you,” he said with an uneven tone.

Melissa withdrew her hand from his pants and sat her lips between her teeth to hold back the laugh that wanted to escape. She had just performed a sexual act and nobody wanted to be laughed at after something like this. He’d think he was too small or did something wrong and that wasn’t it. Melissa just found it hilarious that he was so embarrassed about what they’d done. Craig took a couple of tissues and cleaned himself up while Melissa swiped at her hands.

“So... how was that for a first-timer?” she said with a grin.

“Fucking... uh, I don’t know,” Craig said awkwardly “I came pretty quickly so it must have been good.”

“Well only you can be the judge of that,” she said with a wink, walking toward the door after dropping the tissues in the bin.

“Wait,” Craig said as he sat up on his elbows “Where are you going?”

“To sleep,” Melissa responded in confusion “Why, is there somewhere else I should be?”

“You could stay in here with me,” he said with a smirk.

“Fine,” Melissa said, walking back to the bed.

“You know... I probably won’t let you leave,” Craig said as he lay on his back, doing up the drawstring on his pants again.

Melissa sat an arm over Craig’s chest and oppressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Goodnight,” Melissa whispered as she hovered above him.

Craig took the opportunity and leant up, capturing her lips and bringing her close to him, her body pressed to his side. He broke the kiss and put his arm under her neck, letting her use it as a pillow.

“Goodnight cutie,” he said with a smile.

Melissa relaxed into Craig’s arms and they fell asleep in a warm embrace.

 

2020

 

It was Melissa’s 20th and she couldn’t be happier. She was there with Evan, a few other members of the Banana Bus Squad (as their fans had kindly named them), Marzia, Felix, their 4 year old daughter Grace, Mark and her boyfriend, Craig. Life seemed to be heading in the right direction. She and Craig would make videos together, video blog, help edit one another’s videos and – in comparison to the other couple present – they were very competitive. Even chores around the house were like small battles; who could fold the most clothes? Who did the most dishes? They were ridiculous to say the least, but they didn't care. that's what made them the best match.

“Hey guys!” Craig said loudly, pulling Melissa to his side “I have something I want to tell you all.” Craig walked toward the small crowd, turned back to Melissa and Grace and said “But first, I’m going to fix up Grace’s shoelace. Come here kid.”

Grace looked at her shoes and smiled. They had practiced this; she asked Melissa to let her go, sitting down so Craig could tie up her shoelace. Grace got out of the way and Craig was still on the ground, a big smile on his face.

“Hey Melissa,” Craig teased, noticing his girlfriend’s widened eyes “I’m sure this is a weird place to ask you, but...”

Craig pulled a small black velvet box out of his jean pocket and opened it, revealing a simple gold ring with a small diamond sitting in the middle.

“... since we’ve been through the best and the worst, would you marry me?” he finished.

Melissa looked up at the others and was unsurprised to see Mark bawling his eyes out already; Daithi had his mouth hung open and Evan was just nodding to show his acceptance.

“Oh no,” Melissa said, feigning a denial as she crouched down “never. You’re such a big baby.”

“Then why are you down here?” Craig asked with a cheeky grin.

“I’m helping my baby back up off the ground,” she said, earning a few confused glances.

When she hugged Craig tightly, they all fell silent.

Upon hearing Craig shout “Thank fuck for that!” the crowd started whooping like mad.

Craig picked Melissa up and swung her around, her pale blue dress following her like the train of a wedding dress.

“I love you,” he said when he put her down.

“I know that Craig,” Melissa said before pressing a quick kiss to his lips “I’m not stupid.”

Craig seized Melissa’s hand and slid the ring onto her finger, taking in the sight. This was his future wife and he wouldn’t let anything get in their way.

“I have my own question for you lot,” Melissa said, staring at the others.

Craig made a face and put an arm around Melissa’s back. He didn’t see Marzia smiling as if she was about to ask the question herself.

“How good of a father do you think Craig would be?” she said with a smile she was desperately trying to hold back.

Craig’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“Wait,” he said in exasperation “You’re pregnant?”

“No,” Melissa whispered with a furrowed brow “We haven’t gotten that far yet.”

“That’s why I was asking,” Craig said, not skipping a beat.

Melissa rolled her eyes and Marzia leaned down to her ear, delivering these words of wisdom:

“If he doesn’t want you to cheat, he’ll be a hard Dad to beat.”

Melissa laughed and got hugs from everybody at the party, wishing Alex, Jack and her family could be here to share the news, but they had their own lives to live. Besides, she still had them on Skype.

“I’ll keep that in mind Marzia.”    


	20. Ending Two: Stolen from the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa's happy ending with Mark... I think?

2019 – California

Melissa was in a cab, driving from the airport. She had been out of school for a year and her channel had come to life thanks to Mark, Felix, Marzia and the others who had been with her in Anaheim. They had given her advice on editing, lighting and everything in between, but Mark had kept in contact with her the longest. When Craig and Evan got into a dispute about something Craig had said, they cut off their ties with her. It had been devastating, but not as much as the news she had gotten about Toby two years ago. His anger, sadness and guilt had gotten the better of him and he had died, supposedly with someone’s name on his lips. The press described it as a feminine name and said no more. Alex’s present hung around her neck, the letters ‘A.G’ engraved into the back. She had cried for the first time in a long time about Toby and yet she wondered if they were tears of guilt herself. It was her fault that he had left after all. The car stopped outside of Mark’s place he shared with Ethan and Tyler, plus his beautiful Golden Retriever Chica. Melissa had discovered Facebook In mid-2017 and found lots of pictures of the sweet dog, which had lifted her spirits a little after the news. Besides that, Jack, Mark, Felix and Dan had invited her to join in videos with them multiple times, including a few inappropriate rounds of Cards Against Humanity – not that they could have been appropriate in any way. The driver offered to take Melissa’s one large bag, but she shooed him away after paying him.  
“I’ll be fine,” she said with a hand raised in protest “All my friends are grown men who drag it upstairs for me if I bat my eyes enough.”  
The driver shook his head with a chuckle and said “Good luck kid!” as he drove away.  
Under her breath, Melissa huffed “I’m not a kid,” barely containing her inner rage.  
Just because she was five foot four didn’t mean people had to assume she was a child. Melissa dragged her suitcase to the front door, a backpack secured over her shoulders. When she reached the front door, she knocked lightly and she was greeted with the sight of nothing but chest in her face. She looked up and saw Tyler looking down at her with a confused expression. She had never really had a sense of scale, but Mark had always said Tyler was a giant. Now Melissa could do nothing but agree as she began to strain her neck. Tyler’s brow was furrowed and he turned his head, calling out over his shoulder.  
“Hey Mark,” Tyler called “Midget’s here.”  
Melissa’s mouth dropped open and Tyler laughed loudly, opening the door wide so she could bring in her suitcase.  
“Nice to see you two Moose man,” Melissa snapped back, earning a laugh from Mark.   
With a smile on his face, Mark walked over to the door and gave Melissa a quick hug.  
“How was your trip over?” Mark said as Melissa wheeled her suitcase toward one of the doors.  
Mark gave her a look and they stared at one another for a moment.  
“I was gonna change go put this somewhere out of the way,” Melissa said with a smile “I just assumed the spare room was through here.”  
“The only room through that door is a bathroom,” Tyler said with a look of amusement.  
“Oh... so I’m using the couch then?” Melissa asked hopefully.  
Mark nodded.  
“That’s your only other option besides going home with Tyler or Ethan and I figured talking to them for a couple of hours wasn’t enough time to get to know them,” Mark explained.   
“So... where is Ethan?” Melissa asked, wheeling the suitcase behind her.  
Mark took it away and moved it into a corner, out of the walkway through the kitchen.  
“He’s editing upstairs,” Mark said with a smile “he’ll be down later... but until then, the two of us were going to have a chill in the pool.”  
Melissa nodded with a smile.  
“You know what?” she said with a quizzical expression “That sounds like a great idea. Where can I go change?”  
“Bathroom’s through there,” Tyler said, gesturing to the door Melissa had tried to go through earlier.  
“Thanks Tyler,” Melissa said, huffing in embarrassment as she rolled her beg into the bathroom with her.  
As she undid the zip, Melissa felt a buzz in her backpack. She had a text from Hannah.  
“Jack wanted me to link this to you,” Melissa read aloud “But I don’t get what’s so special; it’s just a video. It’s actually pretty good.”  
Melissa laughed and pressed play, only to laugh even harder when she found it to be ‘A Date with Markiplier’ her subscribers had raved about. Melissa had promised herself she would never watch videos by other YouTubers. If she thought she’d copied somebody, she merely searched it up and hoped that nothing too close to her idea had popped up. The video broke off with a ‘scene change’ where Mark couldn’t pay, so Melissa did the right thing and chose the video where she paid for the food. Mark was his usual excitable self. After a while she had to choose a movie and the poster with Tyler and Ethan had her in stitches. She had put on her bikini top, leaning the phone landscape against the sink. Melissa couldn’t go past the lovely imagery of Ethan in Tyler’s arms and picked it, doing up her top. Melissa picked up the phone and nearly dropped it when Mark seemed to grow more intimate in the footage. The play was horrendous, but she still had a small giggle at Mark’s popcorn-dropping reaction. His explanation afterwards was no better. Now she could watch the ‘Dark Mark’ which she thought might be a harry potter reference and decided that a bit of horror might be interesting. Perhaps there would be FNaF references? Not a chance. Mark was hitting on ‘her’ a lot and suddenly he was gone. The room began to shrink and suddenly it multiplied.   
“What the hell?” Melissa said under her breath.  
She was mentally screaming when she saw him.  
“Did you miss me?” Dark said from behind the screen “I missed you... very much.”  
Melissa’s heart was beating like a hammer against her ribcage, but her hands didn’t move.  
“I’ve been waiting a long time to see you again,” Dark said as his head tilted to one side “I’ve been pushed aside, replaced, mocked...”  
Dark looked away and his voice seemed to become even more aggressive.  
“And then he had the gall to not invite me to his little adventure with you,” he said, shaking his head “No more. Never again.”  
Dark suddenly became loud and angry, his voice bringing Melissa to her knees with a hand over her mouth.  
“IT’S MY TURN NOW,” Dark said with wild gestures “I’VE BEEN WAITING PATIENTLY! HE PROMISED HE WOULD LET ME IN AGAIN!”  
Melissa was sobbing lightly and forced herself to keep quiet.  
“I’m tired of giving people a choice,” Dark said as he straightened his jacket.  
Melissa couldn’t take any more and shoved her phone into her backpack, wrapping her large beach towel around her waist and knotting it at the side. Wiping tears from her eyes, she wheeled the suitcase out and received stares from Tyler and Mark, Ethan give a long whistle.  
“Melissa... since when were you female?” Ethan laughed.  
Melissa glanced at Mark and for a moment she saw Dark’s face, holding his gaze a little too long. She shook her head and looked back at Ethan.  
“Sorry,” she said as she pushed the suitcase into a corner “I’m off with the fairies as usual. I was just thinking about what I can edit on my little laptop without getting in your way.”  
The lie worked perfectly and she stood against the wall in silence while the boys went into Mark’s room to get changed. When they came back out, Melissa definitely stared for too long.  
“Enjoying the view?” Tyler said, throwing his large towel at Melissa, straining on her shoulders and back.  
“You cheeky shit,” Melissa grumbled under the towel, tipping her head forward to get it off, her hands catching it as it fell.  
“So what’s been added to your channel?” Ethan said, trying to catch up as Melissa and Tyler walked out toward the pool.  
“I started doing some songs... covers and parodies mostly,” she said, sitting down only to be attacked by Chica’s affectionate licking “Hey sweetie, you remember me, don’t you?”  
Melissa began rubbing the dog’s stomach, earning her a few more licks until Chica’s leg went nuts.  
“Calm down pup,” Melissa said as Ethan began scratching Chica’s head.  
“Didn’t Mark hold his phone while you two Skyped one day or something?” Tyler said out of the blue.  
“Yep,” Melissa replied “And suddenly she loves me, don’t you Chica?”  
When Chica began walking toward Tyler, Melissa said “That was when you were off working hard and I got to talk with Ethan and Mark. A month later I spoke to you for – what – an hour maybe?”  
Chica got bored and went over to the tall man, expecting a scratch. Tyler crouched down and scratched along Chica’s back, the dog rolling over again.  
“Oh, rude!” Mark said from the doorway “Chica, you know better than that. Don’t ask for pats and then get them from someone else.”  
Mark began play fighting with Chica on the ground, standing up and trying to get her to dance with him. Ethan was in the pool at the shallower end, watching from the water. When Chica jumped up her paw caught Mark in the groin.  
Mark said “Oh fuck!” with his hands covering him crotch and fell backward into the pool.  
Melissa and Tyler were on the edge laughing like mad.  
“How did that feel Mark?” Tyler said from the side.  
Mark came up for air and dipped his mouth below the water, spitting it out in Tyler’s direction suggestively.  
“Alright Tyler,” Melissa said as she stood up, Chica’s large paws colliding with her hip “Ah! Chica, chill pup. Want to jump in first?”  
Tyler held out a hand.  
“How about together Madame?” he said with a terrible British accent.  
Melissa grinned, took Tyler’s hand and they ran toward the pool. As they fell into the water, Melissa saw Mark’s face. It sent chills down her spine. The cool wet feeling washed over them, melting away the heat of the sun in an instant. When they got to the surface, Melissa realised that Tyler still had a firm hold of her hand.  
“Tyler?” Can you let go?” Melissa said with a smile.  
“Uh...” Tyler looked behind Melissa and zoned out for a second “Oh yeah! Sorry.”  
“Its fine,” she shouted as she took big steps backwards “that happens with old age!”  
Tyler and Ethan had their mouths hanging open in fake shock.  
“How dare you insult my husband!” Ethan said, cupping his hands and throwing water at Melissa.  
Tyler stared at Ethan and tackled him for his outburst, being careful not to let him go under the water. When Ethan was in his arms, Tyler laughed.  
“I’m not your husband, I’m your Daddy,” Tyler said as he lifted Ethan up out of the water.  
“I’m sorry, who’s your Daddy?” Melissa snapped back, making it seem as though she was jealous.  
Tyler dropped Ethan back into the water and he came back up laughing madly.  
“How did you keep a straight face Melissa?” Ethan said as his face grew pink “You’re as bad as Tyler.”  
“Hey,” Tyler said to Mark “Are you feeling alright?”  
Melissa looked over at Mark and he seemed quite sickly; it looked like he was about to throw up.  
“Um... Melissa, why don’t you get out first while Tyler I help Mark out of the pool?” Ethan suggested “it’s not a good idea for him to be out here, especially if he gets worse.”  
“Good thinking 99,” Melissa said, getting out and wrapping herself up in her beach towel.  
Ethan and Tyler smiled at the reference, each of them hooking an arm under one of Mark’s.  
“I’m fine Melissa,” Mark said as his eye lids began to grow heavy “Don’t worry too much.”  
While Mark, Tyler and Ethan disappeared into Mark’s room, Melissa went into the bathroom furthest away from them and changed out of her bathers, hair dripping wet. If Melissa had to guess, Mark had been working himself too hard. In 2017 he had told people he felt lost and had caused an uprising of fans in the weeks following, but his blubbering made a lot of people appreciate him more. It was with that same amount of blubbering that he announced Amy’s departure from his life; she had been receiving death threats and had drawn the line when someone announced it to her in the street outside of Mark’s place. He had called Melissa over Skype and told her to watch the video, leading to her own tears being shed. Perhaps it was anxiety and depression eating away at him? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good for him. Melissa left the bathroom and unzipped her bag, furiously rummaging through her clothing (regardless of the fact that a few pairs of her underwear were now in full view of any passerby) and fished out her laptop, along with a digital camera and couple of other things she would need to make a video.

Some Time Later...

Melissa hadn’t recorded a song in a while; her last few videos had been reactions, which had gone down well with her steadily increasing 2 million subscribers.  
“I am MellsWell and thank you for watching today’s Five Nights at Freddy’s themed cover; may the nerd be with you,” Melissa said with a smile and a rather animated wink.  
Just as she turned off the camera and began compiling all the files together, Tyler grinning like a fangirl behind the computer screen.  
“You’re a good singer but that outro is even better,” he said, wiping a tear out of the corner of his eye.  
“You guys are lucky I brought this cheap keyboard,” Melissa said as she rolled up the flimsy instrument “it gets the job done but it’s quiet as hell.”  
“Hey guys,” Ethan said as he walked into the view of the laptop’s camera “Oh, is that still on?”  
“No,” Melissa said as she passed an external hard drive to Ethan “Are you sure you want to edit this for me? You really don’t have to if you don’t want to.”  
“Its fine,” Ethan said with a dismissive hand gesture “Besides, editing Mark’s stuff it pretty easy now that I’ve been doing it for so long. And Tyler’s been practising.”  
Tyler and Melissa went and sat in the loungeroom. Melissa smiled and gave her thanks once again to Ethan before looking up over to Mark’s bedroom door. Tyler cleared his throat and held her gaze.  
“What’s up?” Melissa said in confusion, finally noticing his large eyes on her.  
“When you last came to California, did Mark act oddly at all?” Tyler said with a serious tone.  
“No, why?”  
“We needed to know if the other... guy showed up. I can’t believe the fans caught on and named him before we could. For a long time Mark just called him The Other Mark and we accepted it as a part of who he was; Darkiplier never gave us any real trouble. Then when people came up with Darkiplier, Mark decided that the only way to get over him was to incorporate him into videos so he wouldn’t feel ‘left out’.”  
Tyler paused and he seemed to look up at the staircase with worry in his eyes as much as it was present in his tone.  
“He was there,” Melissa said as she shifted on her feet, her voice getting a little deeper as she tried to hide her fear form Tyler “and I can’t get that crap out of my head. I only just saw that whole ‘Date with Markiplier’ thing and it’s pretty freaky... but that wasn’t him, was it? That was all Mark, right Tyler?”  
Tyler shook his head.  
“We asked Mark about it afterwards and he didn’t remember a thing.”  
“Shit,” Melissa whispered, hoping Tyler wouldn’t hear.  
Ethan came out and gave a thumbs-up, indicating that the video was loaded up.  
“You’re laptop handles video editing pretty well,” he complimented.  
“That’s what you get for your money I suppose”, she fired back.  
Before long it had gotten late and Ethan and Tyler had to head home. When they got to the door, Ethan seemed on edge and Tyler looked anxious enough to force her into going home with one of them to avoid Dark.  
“Don’t tell me you’re actually staying here?” Ethan said at the front door, looking at Melissa with as concern filled his veins.  
She had gotten into an old shirt and a pair of knee-length shorts to go to bed in, but she got the feeling she wouldn’t do much sleeping with Mark being so ill and Dark on the prowl.  
“I don’t have much of a choice,” Melissa said with a shrug “I can’t leave Mark alone. Besides, if he tries anything funny I can lock myself in a bathroom and call one of you. I’ll be fine, I promise.”  
Tyler and Ethan both gave Melissa a hug goodbye and parted ways, giving her one last sorrowful glance. Melissa shook her head to clear her mind as the door closed, talking to herself to clam her nerves.  
“It’s Mark,” she assured herself “He wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. It’s only Dark you have to worry about. You’re safe as long as you have your phone.”  
Melissa sat her phone in the waistband of her shorts and underwear to keep it in place. Rummaging through her bag for the millionth time, she grabbed her headphones and plugged them in; she then turned on the Five Night’s at Freddy’s song by The Living Tombstones she had done a cover of earlier that night. Mark would appreciate the gesture and hopefully it would keep Dark at bay. Melissa pulled out her phone and sent a text to Mark, telling him there was a video up that she had made to help him ‘get well soon’. Melissa heard Mark open his door and sunk into the couch, pulling the blanket Ethan had given her over her body. The phone fell onto the edge of the blanket and landed with a soft pat, sliding over the blankets surface and carely making a sound. Mark opened the door to another room Melissa hadn’t seen hiding around the corner and she peeked over the edge of the arm of the lounge, the light illuminating the wall and casting a shadow. She silently thanked God that Mark was wearing clothes. She heard moaning and groaning come from the room after a while, her rendition of the song possibly annoying Mark to the extent that he had to do a reaction video out of duty. But he couldn’t have; he didn’t do an intro. Mark left the office and walked toward her, fear forcing her to roll over.  
“Hey Melissa, are you awake?” Mark said, placing a hand lightly on her shoulder.  
Rather than waking her, Melissa felt the blankets pull back, two strong arms lifting her like a baby from the lounge. He placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head and Melissa began relaxing into his arms. Melissa thought about sneaking a glance at Mark, but it was too risky. If he knew she was awake, things might end badly for both of them. Melissa felt something soft replace Mark’s arms and she realised that he had put her in his bed. Possibly every fangirl’s dream and here she was mentally trembling at the thought. Mark slid the covers over her and kissed her cheek.  
“Goodnight Mel,” he whispered, moving away to turn out the light in his room.  
Melissa felt a shiver coming on when Mark’s weight made the mattress sink behind her. An arm pulled Melissa in close and Mark was shaking as much as she wished she could, but she had to force her fear to dissipate.   
“Mark... why did you bring me here?” Melissa managed, though she was sure she was out of breath.  
“I didn’t bring you up here... he did,” Mark whispered “He likes you a lot more than he should; I’ve always wondered who he was talking about in ‘A Date with Markiplier’. And I’ve been thinking...”  
“Don’t say it!” Melissa said, desperately hoping Mark wouldn’t finish his sentence.  
“... that I have the same feelings for you that he does,” Mark finished, rolling Melissa over so that they were face to face.  
“How do I know it’s not a trick?” Melissa remarked sharply.  
“Did Dark ever kiss you like this?” Mark said, slowly moving a hand up to Melissa’s jaw and covering her lips with his.  
Melissa tried to pull back and Mark let go straight away. She stared into his eyes and saw fear being projected right back at her. Making the decision to take the situation into her own hands, Melissa pulled Mark by his tank top and kissed him aggressively, taking Mark completely by surprise. Using her strength, Melissa broke the kiss and managed to push Mark over so he was looking at the ceiling. She had her hips sitting at the top of his thighs, just short of his crotch. If this was going to work, they both had to want it... and hope that Dark didn’t take over.  
“Are you sure about this?” Mark said, holding Mellissa’s gaze as it ran over his face.  
“Of course I’m sure,” Melissa assured him, kissing his jaw “Besides, it’s easier on you mentally if I’m on top – if we take away Dark’s control and let his dreams come true then he’ll just give in.”  
For a moment Mark seemed apprehensive, but he couldn’t stifle a laugh.  
“You’re pretty seductive for someone your age,” Mark said reaching over toward his bedside table.  
“I’ll grab it for you,” Melissa said, rummaging through the top drawer, body bent at an odd angle to reach into it.  
When she couldn’t find a condom like she expected, Melissa looked at Mark for an answer, but his smile told her that it wasn’t Mark.  
“So you’ll give me what I want huh?” Dark teased with a smile.  
He pulled Melissa up his body, creating a wall of hair between them and the outside world. This couldn’t get any worse.  
“You’re a brave young woman, I’ll give you that,” Dark said as he kissed her cheek and neck.   
“And don’t think I’d like nothing more than to have you right here... right now,” he growled against her throat, making her shiver “But between you and me, I’d rather have fun instead of leaving you bloody and bruised.”  
“Wha-What changed your mind?” Melissa said as tears welled up in her eyes “Last time you seemed pretty set on doing whatever you wanted instead of caring ab-bout me.”  
“Mark’s been holding me back all evening,” Dark whispered “That’s why he gave in when you got up on him and said you were willing to let me in. I wanted him to do that with Amy but he wouldn’t let it happen. I snapped one day and nearly killed her just to get her away from us both. Now that she’s gone I can have you.”  
“So it was you in that video then?” Melissa said as her fear ebbed away.  
“I remember the way you kissed Mark,” Dark said as he leaned up toward Melissa’s lips, kissing the corner of her mouth “You really wanted to prove to him that you weren’t mad. You cared. Nobody’s ever embraced Mark with open arms after I’ve shown up; most girls just push him away.”  
“Then I’ll have to force you to leave,” Melissa snarled “Bring Mark back so we can finish what we started.”  
“You mean you want to finish what you started with us,” Dark said with a cynical smile “We are the same person after all... or have you forgotten?”  
“Fine,” Melissa said through fritted teeth “But I’m not sleeping with you unless – “  
“Second drawer,” Dark said, giving her a suggestive wink.  
Melissa leaned to her right again and opened the second drawer, feeling Dark’s hands move across her hips and stomach. Melissa could feel him hardening against her thigh and she hated to admit it, but she was starting to like it. With the small, square package in her hand, Melissa leant toward Dark for a kiss, but he pushed her off of him and swapped positions. Now he was on top.  
“Hand it over,” Dark said menacingly, making Melissa quiver under him.  
“Ever heard of foreplay, Romeo?” she hissed as fear bubbled to life.  
“I was only going to put it on scaredy cat,” Dark laughed, taking the little square and quickly forcing a kiss on Melissa.  
He was very possessive, but fighting Dark for dominance in the kiss was difficult, yet she managed. They broke apart, almost breathless. Dark practically ripped off his tank top and it hit the floor with a soft crumple. He went back to the kiss and explored Melissa’s mouth with his tongue, making sure he didn’t miss a single detail. Melissa was running her hands along his abs, fingers tracing along old scars that made him laugh into the kiss. She almost died at the thought that Mark and Dark, the physical representations of good and evil in her opinion, were ticklish.   
“Stop,” he said, half way between angry and defeated “I don’t want to laugh, I want to have fun.”  
“Isn’t that one in the same?” she fired back.  
Dark rolled his eyes and they nearly bugged out of his head when Melissa took off her old t-shirt, revealing a plain black bra.  
“Puberty was kind to you,” Dark said with a wink.   
Melissa sat up to kiss Dark’s neck, earning something between a growl and a moan.  
“Ditto,” she said as she gave a light suck at his pulse.  
Unlike Dark, Melissa didn’t cause injuries – she made memories. This definitely wouldn’t be something she’d forget. Melissa ran one hand down to the waistband of Dark’s boxers and he was looking down at her with a mix of lust and anticipation. Rather than dipping below the elastic band and finishing him off early, she decided to leave him hungry for her. If they both wanted it badly enough, there’d be less pain. Dark seemed to catch on as her hands moved to his bare back, fingers exploring flesh warmed by his lust-heated blood. His hands were on her chest, making light brushes against her nipples under the black fabric, groping her breasts as if he’d never be able to do it again. He had stuffed the condom into his pocket and planned on leaving it there until they were ready. When her breathing had gotten a little faster, her thoughts perhaps even needier than usual, Melissa moved her hand back toward Dark’s crotch and he swatted her away. She should have been happy about it, but she was more shocked than anything, especially when Dark kissed her hard and pushed a hand into her hip. He was trying to be gentle but that wasn’t in his nature.  
“I want to hear you moan first... then we’ll go all the way,” he whispered as he pulled down her shorts and underwear.  
Melissa raised an eyebrow and lifted her hips, the last of her clothing joining the pile of fabric on the floor, minus the bra. Dark dragged a finger down Melissa’s throat, between her breasts, down her stomach and pushed one finger inside of her. Melissa felt her muscles grab at the digit and rather than reacting adversely found herself wondering what Dark could possibly get out of – oh, that’s why. She really was clueless when it came to sex. Melissa was she had become the textbook definition of a virgin if there ever was one.  
“You still here?” Dark whispered in his deep, gravelly voice.  
“Yeah... just nervous,” Melissa said when they locked eyes.  
“Don’t tell me you’re still a virgin?” Dark said as he slowly moved his arm.  
Melissa’s breath hitched and she had to look away from him.  
“Well after our last run in I was put off the whole thing,” Melissa said with certainty, trying to ignore the sensation her body was being exposed to.  
Dark suddenly increased his speed tenfold and Melissa made a sound she didn’t know she could make – he got the moan he wanted, but it was combined with an awkward squeak.  
“Oh God,” Melissa said with her hand over her mouth.  
Dark moved it away and replaced her hand with his lips, a low rumble in his throat telling her that he liked what he heard. Dark knew what he was doing and she was on edge, her body on fire and the feeling of an orgasm was getting close. Just when Melissa thought something was going to push her over the edge, Dark left her hot and needy in front of him.  
“Little shit,” Melissa said breathlessly, grinning half in annoyance and half in surprise.  
Her chest heaved to get air back into her lungs and Dark just smiled. Melissa sat up on her knees and put a hand into Dark’s pocket, pulling out the condom.  
“So... are you putting it on or am I?” Melissa grinned, holding the little package next to her face.  
Dark’s face fell and he scrambled off of the bed, his identity clearly changing. Now Mark was at his bedroom door and his heart felt as though it was beating at 100 miles an hour.  
“When did you get in here? Why are you naked in my bed?” Mark blurted out in shock.  
Melissa dropped the condom and lifted the blankets up over her body.  
“Exactly what it looks like,” Melissa said with a lack of emotion on her face “Giving Dark what he wanted so he’d leave us alone.”  
“You’d actually let him?” Mark half-shouted.  
Melissa breathed hard for a moment to clear her head.  
“All the things you saw and the things I did for you got to him,” she explained “He had a change of heart... and obviously so did I. You seemed fine with this earlier but if you have such a big issue with it, I’ll grab my things and go back downstairs.”  
Mark felt himself harden when Melissa stood up – completely nude – and began redressing. She dropped the condom on the bedside and – as she began replacing her top – Mark stopped her in her tracks.  
“Are you still... have you had sex yet?” Mark said with a slight waver in his tone.  
“No,” she answered honestly, shaking her head.  
For no apparent reason, Mark grabbed the packet and lifted Melissa back onto the bed. He next to her and placed a passionate on her neck.  
“What are you doing?” Melissa said as confusion set in.  
“I was your first last time,” Mark said as he opened the condom with his teeth “Now let me be your first again.”  
Melissa just sat in stunned silence as Mark took off his boxers and put the condom on out of Melissa’s line of sight. Mark looked back at Melissa and she opened her legs, letting him lay between them.  
“I’m ready when you are,” Melissa said, kissing Mark tenderly as he lined himself up.  
“If I’m hurting you, tell me,” Mark said as he held her gaze.  
“I will,” Melissa said as she kissed his neck.  
Mark guided himself forward and Melissa forced herself to relax. For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to do it and then he was inside of her, filling her body. She gasped at the strange sensation and Mark stopped.  
“I’m fine,” she said reassuringly, kissing his cheek.  
Mark moved forward again and a sharp sting made her push against his chest.  
“Just... stop for a second,” Melissa said as she waited for the pain to subside.  
Mark kissed her gently, slowly moving himself the rest of the way in. The kiss grew needier when Mark began to thrust slowly and it made Melissa’s blood boil. The feeling of being so close to Mark had been awkward in the past, but to have him with her like this felt inexplicably right. Like Dark, Mark showed his feeling of pleasure by making a rather animalistic rumble in his throat. That sound alone told her he was having as much fun as her. When Mark made the sound again, Melissa wrapped her legs around his hips and her heels pushed him a little deeper. She was beginning to feel the build up of an orgasm and managed to dig her nails in as a warning.  
“Oh God,” Mark groaned in Melissa’s ear “I’m coming.”  
Mark reached his orgasm first, his thrusts becoming almost lazy as he growled against her shoulder and shook through the waves of pleasure as they washed over him. Melissa was close behind, her intimate muscles clamping around Mark, forcing him to pull out so he didn’t have to deal with the pain of overstimulation. They were both panting and sweaty, but Mark didn’t seem to care. After taking off the condom and cleaning himself up with a few tissues and putting his boxers back on, Mark wrapped his arms around Melissa’s stomach.  
“Did I ever tell you that I love you?” Mark said before quickly pecking Melissa on the cheek.  
“I can’t say you have,” Melissa said as her eyes closed.  
“I love you Mel,” Mark whispered, leaning over her “And thanks for the video by the way.”  
Melissa lifted her head and kissed him, relaxing into his arms.

2019 – California

“And as you all know, I have had a few days off from recording and the stories that I’m sick are all bullshit,” Mark said to his camera “The truth is...”  
Mark lifted his hand up to reveal a silver ring with a strange vine-like pattern around the outside.   
“... I am officially engaged to Melissa Brown, but you guys know her as MellsWell. We met up accidentally a few years ago in Anaheim when they had the real-life zombie Apocalypse. I tell you what, she can kick ass. Hey!”  
Mark moved the camera so everyone could see Melissa grinning like an idiot.  
“Mark forgot that I can pinch ‘em too,” she said as she lifted her hand, copying the motion she had just used to grab at Mark’s backside.  
She too had a silver ring, except this one had a small red stone sitting in the middle and there was no vine decor.  
“He just got down on one knee in front of Tyler and Ethan and proposed like it was no big deal,” Melissa said with a hint of disappointment.  
Mark smiled and lifted up his hand, exclaiming to the camera “These are our wedding bands by the way... so calm down ladies, it’s going to happen.”  
Melissa’s mouth dropped open.  
“Hey! No teasing the fangirls,” she said seriously “You’ll break their hearts.”  
“I almost broke yours,” Mark said with a wink.  
Melissa blushed furiously and waved goodbye.  
“Smooth shit,” she spat comically at the camera.  
As Melissa walked away, Mark followed her with the camera, suddenly turning it back on himself.  
“Nice butt on that, how did I get so lucky?” Mark mumbled quickly in a silly voice, moving the camera in close to his face.  
When the video was done, Mark sat on the couch with Melissa, only to hear the doorbell ring.  
“I’ll get it... you’re not supposed to move around too much,” Mark said as he sat a hand on Melissa’s shoulder.  
“Mark, I’m pregnant, not immobile,” Melissa shot back “And I’m only two weeks in.”  
“Shhhhhhhh,” he said with his silly voice again “Nobody can know yet.”  
“The video’s over Mark, calm down,” Melissa said as she got up.  
Mark opened the door and in came Tyler, Ethan and a few people they hadn’t seen in a while.  
“Where’s my hug hello bro?” Felix said to Mark.  
“Right here bro,” Mark said enthusiastically, laughing as they embraced.  
Marzia waved at Melissa from behind him, only to have Grace run in front of her.  
“Auntie Mel!” she squealed with open arms.  
“Hey Grace,” Melissa said with a smile as she crouched down and gave her God daughter a hug “How old are you now?”  
“I’m four,” Grace said, holding up four fingers.  
“You’re a big girl now, aren’t you?” Mark said, picking up Grace and holding her at his hip.  
Felix smiled and winked at Melissa.  
“Little birdie over here told me you two are expecting one yourself,” Felix said with a smile.  
“Yep,” Melissa said with a nod “And so far I’ve only thrown up every day.”  
“Gross!” Tyler and Ethan shouted from the kitchen.  
“You guys said someone was coming from out of town... didn’t you mean Felix and Marzia, Ethan?”  
“No,” Ethan called out “His name sounds like a colour.”  
Melissa’s mouth dropped when Alex Greene walk in through the front door.  
“Hi Melissa; long time no see,” Alex said as he sat a backpack on the floor “Still got that necklace I gave you?”  
Alex pulled on the cord at his neck and lifted the pendant out of his shirt. Melissa did the same and Alex smiled when the small gold pendant appeared in Melissa’s grasp.  
“I barely ever take it off.”  
Alex smiled at Grace and she looked over at him, dumbfounded by his height.  
“Hello,” she said shyly, hiding her face in Mark’s shoulder.  
Alex waved with a smile.  
“Hello Grace,” he replied.  
Grace looked at Alex and he made a face. Grace giggled, making Mark and Felix turn their heads to see the ridiculous face the younger man was pulling.  
“Careful,” Melissa joked “If the wind changes your face will stay like that.”  
Alex laughed and gave her a hug.  
“So... you’re having a baby?” he asked her warily.  
“Yeah,” Melissa said, raising her hand “With my fiancé Mark.”  
Alex nodded and smiled at the same time.  
“You’ve done pretty well without us, huh?” Alex joked.  
“Well, so far so good,” Melissa replied, looking over at Mark, Felix and Grace.  
Mark knew how to be kind and caring and he loved kids, so she knew he’d be a great father. The only worries she had now were what Dark would be like. But since that night, Mark hadn’t woken up with missing memories and Ethan and Tyler hadn’t seen him change. Perhaps now that he felt whole, Mark had no need for Dark anymore. Well, she liked to think of it that way. Any other line of thought meant that he might come back one day and she didn’t think it would be good to have Dark around the baby. He was supposed to be the bad guy after all.


End file.
